Hands of Time
by Naya Zephronic
Summary: Thrown more then 30 years into the past, Yuffie has the choice to change the future.
1. Chapter 1

Vincent Valentine didn't like working with others.

Not to say that he was completely incapable of it, he just preferred not to. This was a known fact to everyone in Shin-Ra's Department of Administrative Research especially the department head, Veld. So when the rookie and he were given the same assignment, Vincent wondered if they'd finally gotten sick of the boy.

It wasn't like Dax was bad at his job, though the friendly fire he was prone to was a big check against him; he was just… well… young… and annoying.

Extremely annoying.

It was a simple guard job. The better part of Midgar's upper plate was still under heavy construction, specifically the Mako reactors and Shin-Ra wanted to keep their newest pet project as safe as possible. Not that it was all that necessary most people didn't have access to the upper plate, but there in lie the problem; it was a boring assignment and Dax couldn't help but point it out every two minutes.

After only about an hour or so he'd managed to lose Dax, on purpose of course. Despite being extremely patient, even Vincent had his limits and the rookie Turk set an all new record for reaching them. This part of the plate was far from complete, more than most of it was the skeletal structure that would hold up the finer points of the new city. He was walking on support beams, staring down hundreds of feet to see the sectors far below. A few people scurried around in the dark; they were pinpricks in his eye sight from so far away. In a few more years those areas would be blocked from the sunlight forever.

It was a depressing prospect but Vincent hadn't been hired to study the psychological aspects of a city hidden from the sun. The Turk was even finding it hard to bring the sympathy for those people to mind; it was like a piece of him had been cut out, the part that actually cared for the lives of those around him.

Veld, he thought numbly, would be proud.

The moon sat full and high overhead, making the careful steps he needed to keep from falling to his death easy to judge. This wasn't like Vincent; to ignore an order and go off on his own, but he couldn't handle any more time with the rookie; he was far too overbearing for the silent Turk. It was like being stuck in a room with a dog that had the most annoying bark and who won't _stop_ barking.

Besides, Dax was more than capable of completing a simple guard missions alone.

A girl screamed. Nothing new in the slums below, except that the sound came from above him; empty space. His head snapped in the direction, his hand instinctively went to his hip, his gun, but he quickly abandoned the notion.

Form the end of a support beam hung a girl by the fingers of one hand, other was holding tight to a massive shuriken. She flailed her legs wildly, trying to gain enough momentum to swing herself up onto the beam, but her kicks where doing little more than weakening her hold on her only support. What was worse, there was only empty space around and below her. Everything was far too out of reach for her to grab or aim for if she fell. It was like the girl herself appeared from empty space. She yelped as her grip slipped all the more, yet she still refused to drop that shuriken; as if it was more important than her life even then.

He had just enough time to wonder why she wouldn't just let the weapon go and save herself and how idiotic he was for even thinking he could pull this off in the first place before her grip gave way and she fell with a piercing shrill. He jumped.

They clashed in midair, his arm wrapped around her waist, her downward momentum pulling them at an angle. They hit a beam lying unattached and waiting to be fitted and bolted into place, the force and weight of their bodies giving it just enough a push, despite its immense weight, to slip from its perch. The beam however, falling in a completely opposite direction stole away their remaining momentum and gave Vincent enough time to plant his feet and jump to the safety of a much more secure section. The giant plank of steel tumbled downwards, clanging metal against heavy metal with a defining boom that made his ears burn and sent a tremor up and down the entire structure. Vincent silently hoped that there wouldn't be any major damage to the construction and, if there was, that they wouldn't be able to prove he was there at all

The girl seemed more then slightly dazed as he gently leaned her back against the L shape of the scaffolding. Her brown hair was cut short, boyish almost. Her clothing was strange; a blue strapless top, over a black one, pulled high above her midriff by a pointless belt, orange shorts that come up so high on her thighs they seemed to belong to a child. Wristbands, headbands, fingerless gloves, bags with ties and more, her boots came up to her knees and socks up to her thighs, no, he'd not seen stranger then this before.

The universe detests your very existence, Vincent. He bitterly thought to himself, trying to divert his eyes from her. It's trying to prove you're not as impervious to change as you'd like the world to believe.

The girl groaned, rubbing her temples with her fingertips, the massive weapon somehow managed to escape a fall and settled neatly in her lap. At least he now wouldn't be caught staring.

...

Yuffie vision was blurry and the world rocked like she was riding the _Tiny Bronco_ on rough waters, but without the motion sickness induced nausea. Of course, the moment she thought about it was the moment that nausea decided to plague her again. That's where the groan had come from and she massaged her temples to try to placate it.

It wasn't helping.

"Anyone get the name of the Weapon that hit me?" She grumbled as she rubbed her eyes until they finally cleared.

For a moment she was going to ask when he'd cut his hair, she'd certainly never seen it that short. It took her the time to open her mouth to realize that not only was his hair short but his ever present red cape was not so ever present. "Vincent!" She squeaked, her voice hitting a note that made him cringe a little, or was that confusion on his face? She wasn't used to seeing the emotions pattern across his face so plainly; watching his face crease and his lips thin was a new sight.

"How do you know my name?" He asked simply. Yuffie _must_ have imagined the subtle tilt in his head. Vincent did not- absolutely did _not_- respond so openly. He did not have short hair, he was never without that swirling red cloak and he did _not_ wear that blue Turk suit.

"Um- uh… " She stuttered lamely.

Lie, lie, lie! her brain squealed not helping at all.

"You-You're… uhh…"

"VINCENT!" Someone called from a more stable area of the platform. He too was wearing the dark blue Turk suit. Oh thank you! She was saved! "We've got monsters over by reactor 2! I need your help!"

Vincent muttered something, low, under his breath. Standing before reaching a hand down to the girl he'd rescued. "Can you walk?" She nodded mutely, taking his hand and letting him pull her back to her feet without any effort on his part. He was already searching for a way back to the main platform; their current perch left it hard to return to the main plate.

"Dax- I'll have to take the long way around." He shouted to the younger boy who was looking on anxiously. Yuffie couldn't help but notice that even his voice sounded different; it didn't have much of that gravely scratchiness she was used to. "Stall, I'll be there as soon as I can."

The boy Turk- Dax, ran off again and they were alone once more.

"I can help." She said suddenly, surprising herself with her own voice. Vincent gave her an incredulous look, making Yuffie frown, her hands on her hips. "Really! That's what this is for!" She held up her shuriken pointedly. "-As a thank you for saving me?" She finally added earning a slow slump of his shoulders that put a smile on her face. They might look – and act, maybe- a little different, but she knew Vincent Valentine like no one else. _That _little motion meant 'fine, you win.'

"Wutai, right?" he asked, turning those blood-red eyes away from her and interrupting her mental happy dance. He was _assessing the situation_ again; apparently her being of Wutai was something of importance. She nodded numbly again, finding he stole the words out of her mouth before they even had a chance to get there. Was it because he was so a like to the Vincent she knew, or, because they were so different that kept her mind spinning in circles?

He was walking suddenly, hopping onto another bit of steal framework. She traced the path his eyes where following with her own; with a little imagination and a heavy dose of luck there was a possibility that the main platform could be reached by jumping across several metal beans, and running along two more that where still suspended by giant cranes.

It was a haphazard and more than a little dangerous path to the platform he was considering, but, she figured, the only other option was to go down and then come back up. No, that would take far too long even for a Vincent who could jump fifteen feet in the air, (She always wanted to try and measure that guess). The sound of his steps suddenly hit a crescendo as he ran and leaped, running along a suspended beam a moment later as it swung and making the platform with room to spare, but taking it in a roll from the height difference that was left. Crouched on the cement floor he turned those ruby eyes back to her, a faint look of amusement on his face. Her she narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks in aggravation; he was teasing her, daring her to run the same route he'd just done and make it.

She had a little problem though. The massive shuriken on her back made it impossible for her to bend and roll enough for her to copy his movements. But this was as close to laughing as Vincent ever got, as far as she knew. With a roll of her eyes she tossed the shuriken high into the air. The sharp blade came down, imbedding itself into the cement at least six inches. Proud of that, at least, Yuffie took the same route he did and leapt.

But of course, on the last beam, she'd miss judge the distance.

Her toes landed on the edge and she flailed her arms in a despite attempt not to fall backwards, an attempt that was failing miserably. She squeaked reaching out blinding for anything to grab on to, feeling dread for the second time that day until something grabbed her hand.

Vincent pulled her forward, his arm going around her waist till she found her balance once again, his hand still grasping gently to her wrist. Yuffie had never seen this mask on his face before. He was amused by her, a ghost of a smile on his lips that shinned in his eyes.

At that thought she took it back, she _had_ seen it before, only it was always covered by the high collar of a red cloak; she'd seen the smile in his eyes. Usually when she'd done something stupid and he'd have to save her sorry butt. "You can help." He said softly, she had to strain her neck to look up at him. "But be careful?"

A wild Cheshire grin plastered on her face as she spun gracefully from his grasp, skipping over to retrieve her weapon. "Careful?" She proclaimed, donning the massive four-pointed weapon in a victory pose. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie Kis-" It was as if a lightning bolt had struck her. Sure, she'd been thinking about it all this time, but it never really registered in her mind; here she was talking with Vincent Valentine, but not the demon-burdened stoic man she'd known. He stood watching her a curious look on his face, obviously wondering what was going on, his left hand shoved in the pocket of his suit. She swallowed hard, remembering the few things the stoic gunman had let slip over the years and realizing that to be seeing him here like this she was somehow transported at least thirty years in the past.

_Thirty years. _

Is this how Vincent had felt when they'd awoken him from that coffin? Confused, lost and out of place? She had new respect for the man, how he'd managed to not turn into a sniveling hunk of panic was a mystery to her. Actually, giving it some thought Yuffie realized exactly how he did it; he focused himself with their mission, with each and every fight and only thinking on the one to come until his mind was ready to cope with the time flux he'd found himself in.

It was a wonder why he was so quite then and even now; he had been trying to hold himself together and, probably, still he felt out of place in their world and it- also probably- had a bit to do with the monsters in his brain trying to take over all the time. Yeah. That was a safe bet.

She took a leaf out of Vincent's preverbal book, read it a few times, shoved it in her mouth and turned it into a spit ball with the name of the next monster she saw on it. Anything he could do she would have a monument carved in her honor of her exploits over.

Apparently Turk Vincent had gotten tired of waiting for her and had just brushed passed her when her thoughts had let their claim over her go. She, squeaking at him to wait up, spun on her heels dashing after him and was secretly thankful that he didn't seem capable of those shadowy-transporter moves he was so found of later.

...

Dax had said monsters. These were not like any monster Vincent had ever heard of or seen. They were easily the size of a Behemoth, if not bigger, their bodies where jet black with no depth or shadow to them. They stood on for legs, but had the length in their forearms to look like they simply dragged their knuckles. He'd almost accused them of being two dimensional, as their blackened appendages disappeared into the void of their bodies if they were not angled correctly. Where their skin met air, the outline of their body if it could be given name, gave way into wispy smoke while still having that depthless black to it. They looked like some kind of cutout or cartoon against the real world, out of place and purely unnatural.

The claw marks he earned on his arm proved, however, that they were also very deadly. The creature that made those marks lay face down on the cement behind him, proving Vincent was equally as deadly.

At the very least Dax and Yuffie seemed to be better back up than he expected. The former, knowing he was prone to friendly fire kept his back to the both of them, trusting them to cover him and keeping his lackluster skills in check. The latter, however, wasn't what he'd expected at all. He'd allowed her to come along, mostly so that she wouldn't be able to run off, and partly because he'd been surprised by her on that small little test he'd given her.

Maybe he was giving her too much credit at the time, but had she taken to account that the heavy weapon was not on her hand to balance herself she wouldn't have almost fallen backwards. She'd made a perfect landing otherwise, though she did prove she was impulsive and hard-headed at the same time. Now, however, he had no doubt; two of the eight creatures they'd begun with were already dark slumps of lifelessness thanks to her shuriken. There was a bit of blood on her leg, _of course_ he'd have to notice, from the claws of one of those beasts, but it hardly seemed to bother her. She sprang and vaulted, running along the wall, vertically, to land a painful hit on top of the depthless creature's head.

Dax yelped, falling back as a black mass descended on him, his gun clattering from his hand to the floor. The beast rose one of its giant sized clawed hands, flexing the fingers before ripping through the air towards the Turk with a roar.

A roar that turned into a shriek of pain as two holes opened up in its palm. Vincent fired again, this time taking aim at the thing's snarling face. Or maybe it wasn't snarling; the blackness lead to more blackness, it was hard to tell if it even had eyes or even teeth, but then that wouldn't account noises it made. Three more shots to the head and then he thought he heard something crack, or it could have been his gun clicking empty. Luckily, the thing finally went down as he was reaching for a new clip.

Dax had scrambled for his gun, picking it up and aiming it in just enough time to earn an extremely lucky shot to the head of one more monster that charged for him. Body lifeless, but still fuelled with momentum, it smacked the ground and slid. Friction didn't steal enough energy from it and it crashed into Dax, flinging the boy backwards and trapping him between wall and beast. Other than being pinned, the boy was fine. There were still three more monsters.

She was on the defensive, fending off three sets of deadly claws meant she could do little else but dodges and the rare glancing blow that was more to save her own skin then for damage. From this distance he couldn't get a killing shot; their head seemed to be their only weak spot, but it was so indistinct that it made it hard to tell what was actually being hit.

Still, it seemed like he scored as one of the beasts fell backwards in a slump. The other two angered over their fallen kin, charged him. He fired, but they seemed unfazed by the bullets.

They were almost on top of him, when one of them smashed head first into the ground. Yuffie stood atop of it, her shuriken imbedded in its skull, her foot on the back of its head. She turned to the other.

Too slow.

He rolled underneath its massive body; two shots lost in the depth of its chest somewhere, missing claws as it passed. It skidded to a stop, sliding on the ground a kicking up dirt, giving Vincent enough time to reload a clip before it charged again.

He jumped, running up on that outstretched claw, unbalancing the monster as he twisted to his knees on its shoulders. Point blank to the back of the skull, two smoking holes opened up and the thing hit the ground with a crunch. Its body shuttered in death and went still.

Yuffie was staring at him. He lifted the handgun again, and her eyes went wide as she realized it was aimed at her. She squealed and ducked as he pulled the trigger.

The first of the three fell down again, this time not getting up.

She glanced behind her realizing the monster almost had her head in what would be its teeth. "You had to kill that one twice! It doesn't count!" She shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth, needlessly projecting her voice.

For a moment he was confused. Then he realized; she was keeping score. The last one not counting meant they were tied. He ran a free hand though his mass of bangs with a shake of his head. "If it means that much to you." He replied, her face going red as he brushed her off.

Hoping down from the monster corpse, he walked over to where Dax was still trying desperately to free himself. "Hey, little help?" He whined, not that Vincent could do anything; Dax was lucky he had the room to breathe right now. He shook his head, something else coming to mind.

That crack he heard, it defiantly wasn't a gun misfire.

One by one, monster flesh began to bubble like acid had been poured on it and much like acid; the bodies began to fade into nothingness. He never understood that reaction, something only monsters seemed to do. Maybe it was the planet's way of cleaning up its own mess.

The monster he was looking for faded away he could reach it, but it left something behind. Crouching, he picked the small piece from the ground, turning it around in his hand. It looked like glass, glowing yellow and red that swirled as he turned it and settled again when still. It looked like materia, but materia only came in single colors. Yuffie came up beside him, followed by a limping Dax, and he held it up for them to see.

"Not Materia." Yuffie stated flatly, though the expression on her face said she wasn't so sure of her words. Dax shook his head, not knowing enough about the stuff to comment.

He nodded in agreement, pocketing the piece and standing. "Dax needs to see a medic back at the company." He commented, turning to Yuffie as he spoke. Dax whined in the background, but was pointedly ignored. "You're welcomed to come with." He offered, knowing instantly that the girl really didn't want to. He filed that away with the rest of the strange things she'd said and done.

"Suit yourself." He added after a moment's pause where she said nothing. Walking off, abet a bit slow with Dax's limp. He only got a few steps before she squeaked.

"Wait-Wait! I'm coming too!" She ran back, having left her shuriken in her last monster's head; it now lay on the ground innocently, before trotting up beside him, letting the boy lag behind. "Hey. Umm…" Her eyes flicked from side to side. "You're left handed." She commented.

"Along with ten percent of the population." He replied. Her question in disguise was strange enough to catch him off guard, hence his smart reply.

She snorted a laugh, trying to keep it hidden.

Yes. She was very, very strange.

...

Apparently both Yuffie and Vincent had something in common. They both didn't like doctors all that much and both had trouble letting one take care of a wound they'd deem superficial. Of course, that was where the common ground ended. Vincent lamented to the treatment knowing the sooner it was started the sooner it would end.

Yuffie whined like a little baby.

And so did Dax.

On their way in, Vincent had flagged down one of the assistance while the others were not looking, especially the Wutai girl, and sent a message for Veld to come met them here. There was no way he was getting Yuffie any farther into the building then this; the indescribable look on her face, the only one so far, said much to her dislike of this place. Her reaction put him off. ShinRa wasn't all that bad…

But, it could be argued, it was getting there.

Treasons thoughts didn't last, Veld finally walked into the room and shooed the doctors away. "Vincent, Dax, report." He stated simply pulling up one of the rolling doctor's chairs.

"Monsters in the reactor, you wouldn't believe me if I described them to you." Vincent's voice, somehow carried over Dax's as the boy began jabbering on like a five year old, describing in detail and with plenty of sound effects, the monsters and their ensuing fight. He was left to animate his version of events, one where he saved both Vincent's and Yuffie's lives several times, in the background.

Veld frowned a little, half listening to Dax, as Vincent pulled the shard of glowing glass from his pocket for him to see. "Not like Materia I've ever seen, what do you think?" Vincent merely shrugged his shoulders.

With a sigh, the Turk stood, walking the few steps towards Yuffie, whom until then had also been ignored. "And what about you my dear, what where you doing out there?"

She shyly poked the tips of her index fingers together. "Well you see…" She began, her eyes darting in search of something to say. Veld was watching him out of the corner of his eye; he gave the man a faint nod. The next thing out of the girl's mouth would be a lie.

"I uh… Came here looking for work. " She stuttered, it looked like it was out of nervousness.

"Then, what where you doing in the construction area of the plate?" Veld went on.

"I got lost."

Vincent couldn't tell whether that was truth or not; he gave Veld the 'inconclusive' sign.

"Then it's a good thing my boys found you." Veld sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "What's your name?"

"Yuffie Kis…owa… Kisowa."

She remembered her slip up, Vincent was impressed, and still, it was a lie.

"You're from Wutai, right?"

"Yes." Truth.

"Are you trained?"

"Trained in what, Sir?"

"Well, I'm not too versed in the countries' custom… Vincent, what's it called?"

"Ninjitsu. She'd be a kunoichi. A ninja." He replied.

"Oh," Yuffie mumbled. "Y-Yes, I'm a ninja." She'd been about to deny it, and had apparently barely remembered her boastful instruction in its entirety this time.

"Where you sent here by Wutai?"

"No." Inconclusive.

"They don't like us all that much, after all. A bit xenophobic, though we've tried being diplomatic with them." That struck a chord in the girl; she flinched a little at his words. "The thing is, Yuffie, I'll have to offer my apologies. Vincent's kind of like a human lie detector." The Turk in question huffed, not liking the way Veld said that. "Now, I don't really think you're here to cause mischief or anything, but you see; the way things have been with Wutai lately, we can't let anything go."

She fidgets under his gaze, even though Veld voice had gone kind, trying to go easy on her. "If you were honest about needing a job, I can help you out with that."

"I wouldn't know what to do." Yuffie mumbled softly, looking like a canary in a cage.

"She's an excellent fighter." Vincent offered. "Far better then she'd lead you to believe." Yuffie whined a 'Hey! What's that supposed to mean?' in the background. "We're rather short staffed… " He trailed off, Veld understood what he was getting at and nodded thoughtfully.

"What? What?" Yuffie squeaked standing between the men. Her head swung from side to side, hand clenched under her chin like a child, trying to decide which of them where more important.

"Infectious, aren't you?" The Turk commander commented with a chuckle. "Yuffie. ShinRa's main objective is to keep the populace of Midgar- both upper and lower- as content as possible."

The Wutai girl seemed to calm at this, Vincent watched her with interest. She wasn't saying anything, but she was thinking of something serious, she knew something that she wasn't telling them.

"What I'm saying is," Veld went on. "That the people look to ShinRa to keep them safe; they expect us to deal with monster outbreaks and other things they are not skilled enough to do themselves, but there are far too many requests for my group to handle. If you're willing, I would like you to unofficially work with us in that regard. I'll have to crack out the details, but that'll be the basic idea."

Yuffie was quite for a long moment, which somehow seemed strange when compared to her mostly jubilant behavior thus far, Veld waited her out. "Can I pick and choose? Like, I get a say what missions I take… right?"

"If that's what you want, I see no problem with it." Veld replied east enough. Vincent was deep in thought, she was still hiding something. Normally Vincent was far better at reading things, but this exuberant girl, who switched facades at the drop of a hat, had him vexed. She was a wild card that he could only predict some of the time. He didn't like wild cards, didn't like unpredictability. "Anyway," Veld went on, snapping his mind out if it's private reverie. "Vincent, I'll need a report on what happened at the reactor."

Vincent frowned. "Get Dax to do it." He muttered, ignoring the expected protests from the boy Turk.

"Fine." Veld shrugged, standing to walk out the door. He paused, putting a hand on the frame, before turning to the three. "Dax, you're stuck with the report. Vincent, take Yuffie home with you."

"_**What.**_"


	2. Chapter 2

In the end, Veld was the boss-man and whatever the boss-man says goes. Yuffie snickered under her breath, earning a curious look, one that only lasted for an instant, from her taller companion. It had gone something like this;

"_**What."**_ Both Vincent and Yuffie deadpanned in unison. Yuffie did not normally deadpan. She squeaks. She squeals. She shouts. Deadpanning was for a certain tall dark and intimidating Ex-Turk that she knew (and he wasn't quite this younger one, but she couldn't shake the thought that he was getting there), but for a moment, just one quick moment she'd forgotten that this wasn't the WRO, that it wasn't Reeve she was talking to. She deadpanned because it was funny to, because she knew it would be Vincent's exact same reaction. It would have made Reeve bust out laughing, trapped in a fit of laughter for a minute or so, and Vincent smirk faintly under that collar of his (because every once in a while she'd do something just right and even make him smile; those little victories where her pride and joy and she savored every one of them).

And it hurt a little.

Vincent didn't get it. He had yet to learn that this was funny to the both of them. But, this man, Veld… he laughed like Reeve did and it made her heart ache just a little more. Not that she'd ever admit that to the man that was thirty years away. Yuffie did not miss people. She promised herself she'll make Reeve regret making her feel this way; a little practical joke, super glue on his office door handle maybe (she'll make it work, she's a ninja after all), and everything would be right as rain.

Vincent, the young Turk Vincent, not her WRO partner and fellow world saver that was stoic and quiet and almost gloomy and damn why was she thinking about that again, and Veld who reminded her of Reeve and made her want to snuggle a Cait Sith- UGH!

_They_ bickered back in forth, more like father and son then commander and subordinate. Veld let him get away with it too, like he was used to it; this was normal for them and even the little boy Turk didn't seem put off by it. She asked him – the boy Turk whose name she couldn't seem to remember- why they acted so weird. Apparently the two have known each other forever; Vincent's father and Veld where childhood friends.

Vincent had a father. For some reason, Yuffie had always thought he'd spawned out of osmosis or something, and yes, she _did _know what osmosis was, thanks very much (and she _is _using it in a proper context, if you use some creative thinking anyway, but it _sounds _smart and that's all she cares about). She smiled as they fought, she couldn't help it. The Vincent she knew was chained down by so much regret he saw himself as a monster and was convinced everyone saw him that way too. She always tried hard to prove to him that he wasn't, but it was hard to change the way someone else saw themselves in the mirror. This was so... out of character for Vincent, like she was reading a bad fan fiction about him. But, she had to admit, it was nice to see Vincent acting like a normal human.

Of course, this meant that now Vincent was very upset. Even after they left the still construction heavy ShinRa building, his posture was rigged, hands shoved roughly in the pockets of his jacket that he put back on despite the claw marks and his lips moved to unvoiced curses. They were walking because Vincent had grumbled that he lived close and didn't like to drive. He'd used short words that time, no more than a handful of words to get his point across. He talked less when angry, had he always done that (and was the question _will he_)? She never really paid attention.

Finally she skittered up to his side, hopping in front of him and turned so she was walking backwards. She had to do a skippy little hop to keep in front of his longer stride. "Vincent… if really bothers you that much I can find a hotel or something…" She was being honestly sincere; watching him fight with Veld was entertaining. Seeing him seething now, well, if this was Vincent thirty years from now she'd have at least met the Galian Beast by now. "I mean, if you're really that mad about it-"

Surprisingly, he let out a long sigh let his shoulders slack ('You win, I give up,' it meant something along those lines anyway) and ran a hand thought that mop of bangs that fell into his face. "No… Not mad…" When she tilted her head to the side, he answered her unspoken question. She never knew being quite got so much more out of him, she should probably try it more often. "Veld knows how to get under my skin, likes to remind me- never mind."

Yuffie had a feeling she knew what he was about to say.

Rather than let that hang in the air, Yuffie stopped walking backwards in front of him and changed the subject. "I was surprised." She said suddenly. "You called me a Kunoichi, not just a ninja and not a shinobi. You knew the difference."

He shrugged his shoulders, but didn't answer and she frowned, so much for her theory.

A less tense, but not comfortable silence fell back over them. Yuffie, however, was god awful impatient and was quick to beak it. "So, umm… What's his name- Dax? What's up with him? He's not like any-ummm… like what I thought a Turk would be." He was giving her a funny look, and for a moment she thought he saw though her little slip up (or maybe he was seeing though all of them and was biding his time; it was a very Vincent thing to do after all, oh no, now she's paranoid!), but he chuckled under his breath (and that wasn't a sound she'd ever heard before. Her Vincent never laughed… didn't have anything to laugh about. Paranoid to depressed in less than a second, had to be a record).

"Here's a hint; try to describe him." He replied simply.

She thought for a minute. "Uhh.. Brown hair, brown eyes…. Average height, average weight… umm"

"Any distinguishing characteristics?" He prodded, pushing her on.

"I can't… remember his face… I was just looking at him. How the heck does he do that?" She squawked, she stopped dead in her tracks. He paused, amusement written on his face.

"Dax's specialty is, or will be, espionage. No one ever really remembers what he looks like; he's forgotten the moment he leaves a room. He still needs training though." Vincent mumbled that last part, reaching a hand to rub at his temple. Yuffie snickered; Dax needed _a lot_ of training. But, she also felt bad for the kid, going through life being ignored and forgotten all the time. It made sense that he'd try to be as memorable as possible, even if he got on some people's nerves. "We're here."

The ninja girl squealed in delight as Vincent pushed a key into the lock and turned it, hitting a note that made him stop an extra second to rub his ear before letting the door swing open. Yuffie dashed inside.

Vincent's house looked like this;

First thing when you opened the door you're greeted by a flight of stairs. To the left is another door that undoubtedly lead to the garage, but Yuffie took no notice of it, instead she crashed up the stairs like a tidal wave, taking the steps two at a time. The stairs dumped you in the living room in the back of the house, with a small patio behind even that that looked out over a less constructed area of the growing city. She wondered, the thought fluttering away the instant it came to mind, what the view would be like later. The kitchen was separated by a cooking island (it had the skink and dishwasher and stuff, but it was an island right?) that curved around and left a pathway between it and the banister that kept you from falling down the stairs. Going closer to the front of the house was a dining room area; it was sectioned off by a single step up. Back farther to the very front was the bedroom and bathroom.

Yuffie racked her brain for the type of house this was. A loft? She wasn't sure, as she'd never actually been in a loft house before, but it seemed particularly lofty, with its design hanging over the garage below. It was small, meant for only one person, or a couple just starting out. It was probably all he really needed, practical, she guessed, and in that thought it fit him. "I like it." She replied with a smile, leaning over the banister. He was just coming up the stairs now; she'd already explored it all.

"Glad it meets your approval." He replied sarcastically. She laughed, giggled and snorted. He rolled his eyes at her.

She missed her Vincent.

"So, where am I sleeping?" she asked innocently, watching as he pulled his torn jacket off again and tossing it. It was probably repairable. He sunk down on the sofa that hid behind the kitchen's island.

"I'll sleep out here, you can use my room." He said finally, as if he hadn't had that idea all along.

"W-what are you sure? I mean it's your house…" He waved off her words though.

"It's fine. Not anything I don't do on a regular basis." She went quite again, shifting from foot to foot, and staring down at the white carpet, against her white socks. She'd taken a cue from him, though how she noticed when she was thumping up the stairs like a thunderstorm was a mystery, and taken off her shoes at the bottom of the stairs.

"Vincent...?" She asked sweetly.

"…Yes, Yuffie?" He replied, knowing something bad was about to happen.

"I- uh. Don't… have… a… change of clothes..?" She asked meekly, wandering into the kitchen to look over the island and at the couch he was slumped on. He was watching her out of the corner of his eyes and she caught the tail end of a roll of his eyes.

"You're out of luck; it's about 4 in the morning."

"Awww, Ew! I'm stuck in day old cloths for the rest of the night!" She whined, and then gasped in delight as she thought of something (and she was pretty sure Vincent cursed, but her gasped covered it up and she couldn't be sure). "The pancake places will be open in two hours! Can we go pllleeeease! And then go shopping?"

An exasperated sigh. "Two hours. You're giving me two hours of sleep." It was a statement, not a question.

"I'll let you sleep in your _own_ bed for those two hours." Yuffie replied sweetly as if she was giving him the best deal he could hope for, and she was too.

There was a long pause where Vincent pretended to consider the idea. He pretended to consider because he didn't know he really had no choice any other way, not yet anyway. He stood up from the sofa, stopping a second to pull the ruined jacked over his shoulder with one hand. "Wake me up any sooner and you'll be sleeping on the floor." He mumbled darkly as he passed, already half asleep to begin with. The door clicked shut and silence regained its hold on Vincent's once calm home.

Yuffie giggled to herself, her own private joke.

…

She had climbed up to the roof top of the complex and lay awake for those hours, thinking. In all honesty she should go now. Leave this Vincent that she didn't really know even if he was so close to the man she knew that it burned. Face it, even Tifa had gushed over Vincent here and there (and then laughed about it afterwards) despite only having eyes for her blonde-y chocobo of a leader. They didn't really have crushes -except for Tifa and Cloudy-boy, but they were so tight lipped about it that it'll probably never happen- on any of the men, but they'd been around the boys long enough in those days to find little quarks about all of them, little things that didn't matter in the long run, but when she thought about them she smiled fondly.

For a while Vincent seemed happy enough to let the three - two of them after Aerith had gone, and that burned a hole so deep she tugged on the ribbon wrapped around her arm till the pain there made he forget- gossip and giggle in his presence and not take offence. They had, once or twice, and this was such a rare occasion that they practically made a holiday out of it, gotten him to drop a small little tidbit about himself that they attacked like rabid wolves.

Like how he really didn't like chocobos all that much (his only response to pressing was to say "Some childhood impressions are hard to overcome. " which only had left the girls with giggles and speculations) or how he was actually not a fan of Loveless (strangely to Cid's distain) and preferred more complete Epics like Paradise Lost (his exact words had been "It lacks an ending, the story can't ever be completed," Yuffie remembered because she had asked him if he liked happy or sad endings better and he responded with "Memorable endings. The ones that stick in your mind and you can think on years later, even if you don't remember what the story was about.").

He would listen to them ponder and laugh on these things -out loud- at his expense. She never realized, until now, that the strange look in his eyes as he watched them was him smiling below that red coat.

That stopped, however, after Chaos.

Before Vincent had been simply the quite one of the group, really. No one had seemed too bothered by the Galian Beast after his first few transformations (though, Yuffie knew Vincent had a hard time getting over it himself, he hated the beast. Maybe there was an aspect to it that they never saw, not having to deal with the creature on a daily basis, or maybe he detested it for the way it made him feel. Vincent was far too complicated sometimes). Chaos however, had been another story. Even they could tell the demon had reason and intellect. It had probably been smart enough figure a way out of its corporal imprisonment if it really desired. It scared them all. Yuffie was pretty sure it scared the hell out of Vincent even more.

He stopped hanging around them as much, pulling away from them as much as possible. He was afraid for them, she knew, it wasn't hard to guess. Vincent was afraid that he'd lose control of Chaos and they'd be the first to fall to it. It was irrational and rational at the same time. Yuffie could almost understand it, and she hated it. While the others had let him drift away, she actively tried to bring him back. If anyone could stop a rampaging Chaos it was AVALANCHE, she knew that, but Vincent only thought of that one chance that they wouldn't be enough, wouldn't be good enough. The glass is half empty and all that jazz.

It has spoken to her once. Chaos did. Using a corrupted version of Vincent's voice and a sinister smile she'd never seen on the man's face before. It told her that she was something important to his 'host' and that she wasn't allowed to die (Yes, Chaos saved her life, but scared her mentally in the process so she nulled that point in its favor out). She'd never found out what the demon meant; she- Yuffie Kasaragi – was afraid to open anything but _that_ can of worms.

So, Yeah.

She should leave. She should run now before she was too tied into the ShinRa that wasn't really ShinRa yet. Before she got too used to the man who wasn't Reeve but laughed like him, before she began to like the Vincent that wasn't Vincent because he was far too soft right now (since when had being soft been a bad thing?).

There was a little problem though. That being, she had no idea- well, some idea- of how she got here, and no idea -double no idea- on how to get back in the first place. If she left she'd be on her own without work and gil, and without potential help. If she stayed…

Her stomach growled.

The sun was rising. She hopped off the roof to the veranda and onto the patio. The door rolled smoothly on wheels new enough not to clatter like a train, but old enough to have presence. She snuck back to the front of the house (back, front, back, front whatever!) and slowly pushed open the door to Vincent's bedroom.

She had every intent of waking him and getting her pancakes. Every intent on milking him for all she could and leaving him in the dirt, because that's what Yuffie Kisaragis _did_ (not to her friends of course, except for that one time in Wutai, but they forgave her for that, and then she was reminded that Vincent was her friend to even if he didn't know it just yet and- UGH NOT AGAIN!).

He was dead asleep, his arm draped over the pillow that had somehow found its way against his chest. The sheets only covered so much of his torso and he apparently didn't like sleeping with a shirt on. She watched him sleep for about twenty seconds (and trying not to think about a few very specific things and she'd be damned if she let her thoughts run away just yet), willing herself to believe her own thoughts. Milk him and leave him milk, him and leave him!

He fidgeted in his sleep, his face shifting to an uncomfortable frown as he rolled over, dragging the covers in a hopeless mess with him.

Yuffie backed out of the room silently, finding the sofa warn into comfortableness by its owner's use and plopped down. The thing was, she could never do that to Vincent, not any incarnate. Maybe Chaos had only said that to get under her skin (it worked then and it worked anytime she thought about it), maybe she was reading too far into it (she probably was), but…

On the one hand, no friends, no money, no help. On the other hand… _On the other hand…_

With a sigh she closed her eyes.

…

It wasn't half as bad as he thought it would be, to be honest.

Yuffie had let him sleep five hours rather than her promised two, weather it was out of the kindness of her heart or because she herself had fallen asleep, he wasn't sure. She had, however, used that excuse to make her take her to some pancake chain restaurant. By ten o clock construction on the plate began and the noise made being on the upper plate unsavory. Luckily the distance between the plate and the lower sectors dulled the noise to a mild irritation.

Most everyone still lived in the lower sectors, and while most people strived to live on the upper plate when it was fit, the sectors where still a nice place to live. Vincent couldn't shake that 'for now' thought that kept creeping into mind.

The streets where busy now, people going about their daily hustle. It made Vincent uncomfortable; too many faces to judge, to many hands to watch. He wasn't dressed like a Turk, it was his day off, the only reason he was out here with Yuffie at all, but that didn't mean he left his training behind. If the girl noticed his discomfort, she didn't say anything for it. Blissful innocence she skipped from store to store, looking in with awe before skipping on to the next.

Was it strange that he found her bubbliness enjoyable? She had her moments, if he could say such a thing after knowing her for about twelve hours, but she didn't constantly border on irritating like Dax did. Like now, dancing about like she hadn't a care in the world, like only a few hours ago she hadn't been fighting some strange monsters… She was simply happy.

Vincent shook his head, think on what Veld had said about her. Apparently Yuffie caught this because she skipped over to his side, blinking those grey eyes up at him. "What?" She asked innocence in her voice.

"Infectious… isn't the word for you." He replied with a cryptic smirk. She frowned, those grey eyes going hard. Maybe she took it the wrong way, he let it go, she held on to it.

"Well," Yuffie huffed, throwing her legs out comically in front of her stomping each foot down with gusto. "Welly, well, well-well-well **well,**" The last stomp had her pivoting and she turned to face him. "Mr. Master Wordsmith. What is the word for me?"

He cocked an eye brow, her hands where on her hips and she leaned forward as close as she could, even though it made her even shorter then she was compared to him and made it hard for her too stare him in the eyes like she was. "…You'll have to give the wordsmith sometime to construct an expression that fits your persona-" he almost added 'without being disrespectful' to that, but bit it back. The last thing he wanted was to give her a reason to pull out the kunai she had; she was a ninja, it was a general rule that they did not go without at least 100 weapons hidden somewhere on their person.

Vincent wasn't really sure if she was that dedicated a ninja, but he had said himself that she was deceptive with her looks and actions and didn't really want to find out the hard way.

"Stuffy," She commented lightly, earning her a curious look. "And you should speak your questions more often than just implying them."

He paused a moment, confused by her words. "What do you mean by stuffy?" He asked, the words coming slow, he had always been a quite kid. Those that knew him growing up understood it was just that way, others would just see him as shy and write it off. Vincent just didn't like to talk a lot; if it could be said without words, he preferred it that way. He liked to keep his thoughts to himself.

"Stuffy. When you _do _talk, it's all formal and stuffy sounding. I liked it better last night, and when you were fighting with Veld." She giggled a little at that.

He ran his hand though his bangs, damn nervous habit, and sighed a little. "Defense mechanism." He replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What?" This time Yuffie didn't deadpan or squawk like a chocobo. It was a more gentle inflection; innocent curiosity.

They'd wandered their way into a small playground and he sat down on a bench with his hands in his pockets. "Wasn't a very social kid." He clarified, the sentences coming shorter with his unease of speaking of himself. "My father and I traveled a lot… I preferred labs and books to the outdoors. The scientists he worked with who didn't know me wouldn't let me hang around unless I proved my intelligence."

"Why would you want to do that? Wouldn't you rather go play with kids your own age?" she asked. She didn't sit next to him, she was examining the strange little pink kiddy slide that had the face of some pudgy animal, it's mouth and tongue where the slide.

"Never… really got along with kids my age…" he admitted begrudgingly. Yuffie bust out laughing, steading her back on the side of the kiddy slide. The only way kids don't get along is if they ended up fighting. "Vincent! A little kid! In a schoolyard fist fight! I can't breathe! I wish Tifa where here!" She gasped between fits of laughter and slipped down to her butt, holding her sides in pain.

"Tifa?" He muttered, putting the name away for another time and added; "It's not _that_ funny."

"Yes it is!" she squawked her fit of laughter renewed tenfold. It took several minutes before Yuffie was able to even sit up enough to take a breath and calm her.

"Are you finished?" Vincent asked. He was standing over her, reaching a hand down to help her back to her feet. She grinned good-naturedly, took it and sprang to her feet like a bunny. "Veld does want to see you back sometime today."

"Aww man! I thought today was my last day off!"

"Considering I'm stuck going with you, it's not much of a day off for either of us." Yuffie was smiling like a loon at this; at what he wasn't sure. Infectious wasn't the word for her. It true, she was infectious; any other girl had there would have been no way he'd be out here now, but it simply wasn't... _Yuffie_ enough. He shook his head and chuckled under his breath a little. "Comical is a good one, but still not the word to describe you."

A playful and mischievous smirk replaced the loony grin on her face. He could almost see the thoughts writing themselves across her face; Comical, huh? She was thinking. I'll show you comical. "Think you can really sum me up in just one word, Vincent?"

"Maybe." He shrugged.

…

"My inner feminist does not approve of a man I've just met buying me cloths!"

"Consider it a loan then." Vincent huffed, two paper bags of cloths in his hand hanging over his shoulder. Yuffie was carrying two bags herself (her inner feminist demanded fairness as well), and was still gripping over the fact that he'd purchased them all for her. "Besides, with what gil would you have paid for all this with?"

A devilish smile crossed her face as she spun, walking backwards once again in front of him. "I was going to ask you for a loan."

She duck as the bags in his hand swung at her head, laughing childishly.

They were back on the upper plate, it was just about lunch time and that meant the construction project was put on hold for a few hours but would resume again until about five. Up here on the plate there was no plant life at all, maybe a potted plant here or there, but no grass. She didn't like it much; it was too mechanical, too stale. "How do you stand it?"

"Stand what?" He asked. She'd been training him, y'see, and all morning all of his silent questions had been met with "Saaayyyy iiiit!" till he finally voiced his thought. He wasn't broken of it just yet, it still took him half a second or so before he'd amend his action, but it was a great start. She snickered under her breath; if she wasn't going to leave then she'd at least fix a few things.

"The lack of life. There're no plants up here." He could only shrug his shoulders, unable to give a real answer as he opened the door to the apartment for her. She grabbed the other two bags off of him and darted up the stairs and into the bathroom to change.

Yuffie felt stuck as she changed out of her (icky grimy monster guts three days old! That sounded like a bad nursery rhyme) clothing and showered in ten minutes flat. She was going back to ShinRa willingly, going to go work for them, _willingly_. This was the company that wrecked her homeland. This was the company that would cause so much misery, so much death all in the name of greed and corruption.

But that was thirty years from now, give or take.

She kept trying to remind herself that ShinRa was just a little power company that was growing bigger with its big ideas. She was trying to keep in mind that she wasn't really working for ShinRa legitimately, in fact, if anything, she was working for Veld (who kept reminding her of Reeve and she in turn had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't him), for the people of Midgar.

She pulled her boots back on, her new outfit much like her old; tank tops and shorty-shorts, (the look on Vincent's face had been hilarious, he was apparently much more used to seeing less skin then Yuffie used to showing) and skipped out. Vincent was no were to be seen.

She checked the whole house before trotting down the stairs to find the garage entrance open, so she peeked in.

Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

"That's Feniri!"

Vincent looked up from the work table he sat at, a dismantled gun in front of him, he tilted his head, clearly confused by her words. Before he realized she was staring at the half finished motorcycle that sat in the middle of the room. "Ah. Haven't given it a name yet. Feniri sounds a little strong for it though."

For a moment she was silent, she walked up to the bike, her hands drifting over the smooth black metal of the frame. No, no, it wasn't Feniri, it didn't have those compartment's that kept Cloudy's unreasonably large sword collection safe from the elements (or his crazy driving). It also wasn't half as bulky in the motor, meaning it wouldn't reach that 400 km/h Cloud loved to brag about (she was sure he was lying, because he always avoided proving it) and a few other more... modern maybe, designs. It looked so much like that bike however, that it brought tears to her eyes.

And then she realized Vincent was staring.

"Ah-An… old friend… had a bike like this." She tried to cover, also trying to discreetly wipe her tears away before he noticed.

"That's interesting." Vincent mumbled, looking away, weather it was to save her dignity or he really didn't notice, Yuffie didn't care; she was thankful all the same. "Seeing as I designed it myself; someone seems to have copied my plans." Yuffie paled a little, his tone telling her that such a thing was such an impossibility that he knew without a doubt she was hiding something from him. He didn't press her however; she tried to change the subject.

"What's it run on?" She asked meekly. Meek, Yuffie, there was defiantly something wrong.

"Water." He replied with a shrug. Her eyes were wide as saucers again.

"Really? Water? That's it?"

"And oil to keep the moving parts from eroding, but yes."

"And you built this whole thing by yourself, even the engine."

"The design is mine. The engine was a concept of one of my father's… acquaintances I thought might be interesting to try and make work."

"So, Yes."

He chuckled. "Yes."

"Don't you have to have a degree for this kind of work or something?"

"Mechanical Engineering."

Her mouth hung open for a second (Holy! Vincent was smart! Extremely smart!), not even in her time did they have technology like that (unless Cloud's Fenrir ran on water too and he failed to mention, didn't seem like something Cloud would forget though. And the fact that Vincent built at the very least the prototype!) "How the heck did you build an engine that runs on water and oil?"

His hand went into those thick bangs, hanging there for a second as he breathed a sigh (it wasn't the 'you win' sigh, it was more like a 'Do I really have to talk about it?'). "I told you… I liked books and labs as a kid. Besides, it's not like it even runs yet, I'm still not even sure if it'll run at all."

"It'll run." Yuffie assured him. Cloud had Fenrir thirty years from now, she wasn't really sure if it was the same bike then as it is now, but she had a good feeling it was. "You'll have to take me out on it when you get it going, okay?"

He laughed at that (damn it Vince, stop that, that sound was both so painful and wonderful to hear at the same time), motioning for her to leave. "If it means that much to you…"

…

They were on the sixty first floor. Most of the floors where still under heavy construction, but they'd seem to but a rush order on a few choice floors. She was sitting under a sweet little garden with a newly planted tree in the center, sipping a vending machine drink she'd conned out of Vincent. The tree was going to look really nice when it grew in; it was probably the nicest thing ShinRa had. A tree.

Vincent seemed a lot more relaxed here then he did outdoors (yes, Yuffie noticed, but it was a normal response of her Vincent's, she hadn't noticed a difference until they got back), that is, until two blue coated workers came up to the two of them.

"Valentine, I thought you wouldn't be caught dead here on your day off, still working on that bike of yours?" It was the man that spoke, he was physically imposing, his brown hair was spiked up in a wild mass, and he wore his suit straight and buttoned into perfection. His hands her large and calloused, he must fight with them. "Who's this, your girlfriend?"

If looks would kill, the man would be on the floor. But not from Vincent, he didn't seem to care; it was Yuffie who shot him a dirty look.

"Oh, give it a rest Kraus. You already know Vince can beat you in a fight; don't make him prove it." In contrast the woman with him was a dainty thing with short jet black hair and long bangs. She walked with a little limp (to her own distain, Yuffie couldn't help but stare and remember how she used to have one too), an old injury that seemed to have heeled badly. Her jacket was left open and her hands where covered in white gloves.

Kraus growled under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away like that really didn't hit a sore spot. Vincent was trying to keep from smirking. "Kraus, Brenna, back so soon?"

Brenna sat on Yuffie's other side, a small sweet smile on her face, nothing like the full blown grins that always dawned hers. This Turk was a lady of eloquence (and Yuffie wasn't sure if she was likeable or not). "Oh yes, Mideel was wonderfully boring. I can see why you detest going there so much Vincent."

"I detest it for other reasons, but that is one of them." Vincent replied. Yuffie opened her mouth to ask, but was interrupted by the sweet (who wasn't a flower) girl with raven hair.

"So, you're from Wutai right? We don't see a lot of your people around. What brings you out so far east?"

Yuffie bit her lip, trying to think of something to say. "I well, I needed a change of pace. Wutai is too… stuffy. I needed to see the world."

The big guy called Kraus snorted. "That's a lie. The only time anyone from Wutai leaves if they've been exiled and they usually beg for death instead. What did you do little girl?"

Yuffie paled a little. Wutai had stopped such traditions by the time she'd been born, probably a lot to do with ShinRa's invasion. They needed willing people to go spy on the company. "I-I told you… I just needed to leave."

"Bulls-"

"Kraus." Vincent's voice cracked between them like a gun shot. His red eyes burned as they locked with Kraus's brown ones. "That's enough. Leave her alone."

"I don't have to listen to a kid." Kraus snapped back, flexing his chest and holding out his arms like he was trying make himself look bigger then he already was. In contrast, Vincent hadn't moved except to incline his head so that he was looking at the taller man in the eyes.

"Yes. You do and if I have to, I will prove to you why." Vincent didn't growl, didn't snap, and didn't yell. His voice was level and calm. It split the air like a hot knife through butter, only the knife was one of those solider-grade buster swords and the butter was a giant cement block. Kraus was trying to have a pissing contest with Vincent, but he was having none of it.

Finally the big man backed down, grumbled under his breath and stalked away like a wolf with its tail between its legs. Brenna made a tsk sound, shaking her head as she watched him go. "Vincent…"

He sighed and shook his head, going quite. She couldn't help but remember how her Vincent and Barret interacted. Barret didn't like Vincent because he used to be a Turk. She could remember several times when a confrontation between the two of them had gone exactly the same way.

Brenna put a hand on her shoulder. There must have been a strained look on Yuffie's face because the lady-Turk was trying to comfort her. "Kraus doesn't like the fact that Vincent is second only to Veld in command. He think's Vincent's too young for something like that."

"Young?" Yuffie echoed, the lady-Turk snapping out of the thoughts that liked to drag her away. "How old's Vincent then?"

"Twenty-two." It was Vincent that replied with a resigned sigh. Brenna was laughing, a sweet and gentle sound, her had covering her mouth in such a lady like fashion it would have made Yuffie sick if it didn't make her think of Aerith first.

"What?" Yuffie gawked, turning her attention away from the woman, in attempt to not have to yank the ribbon around her arm. "You don't act it."'

He motioned a hand to Kraus's retreating form, just in time for the man to enter the elevator. "Of course not." He replied. _Look what I have to deal with._ He was saying silently. Yuffie smiled.

"The world would _end_ if Vincent ever acted his age." The three of them turned their heads; they'd not noticed Veld walking up until he was standing right next to them. Veld smirked, obviously finding himself skilled for sneaking up on the three of them. His gaze passed over the three of them and then rested on Vincent. "Do you w-"

Vincent raised a hand to stop him. "If you talk to him every time he mouths off to me, He'll never respect me. It's fine. I'll deal with it later." Veld seemed satisfied with that, turned to Yuffie and Brenna. The lady Turk stood and bowed at her commander.

"It was nice meeting you." She waved a good bye to Yuffie before walking off.

"Anyway, Yuffie." Veld went on. "We need to be clear on this; you're working for me off the record. I'll be taking care of the paper work; you'll just be doing the field work." There was a grumpy look on the man's face, like a little kid being made to eat his vegetables. Vincent wasn't the only one who disliked paperwork. "I do want a second opinion, however, on your skills."

Vincent gave him that silent questioning look, Yuffie had to catch herself before she said 'saaaaaaaaay it!' it would probably start another argument between them (not that it wouldn't be funny).

"Not that I don't trust your judgment, Vincent." Veld shrugged lightly. "Besides, I have something I need to discuss with you."

Vincent didn't seem happy with this. "It's my day off." He muttered.

"I know, it'll only take a moment. Yuffie, you met Brenna, she'll be waiting for you downstairs." He tossed her a cardkey that would take her all the way up to their current floor. "Come and go as you like. Vincent will still be here when you get back."

Yuffie shot up, with a silly grin, tossing her now empty can into the trash. "Have fun getting chewed out Vinnie!" She giggled skipping off.

"Vinnie?" Veld question incredulously. Vincent could only shake his head and shrug.

…

True to Veld's word Brenna was waiting for her in the lobby when Yuffie came skipping out of the elevator. She waved happily, and Yuffie couldn't help but notice the brace on the girl's leg (one that looked almost exactly like the one she used to wear, or will wear- _gawd_ this was confusing).

"Hey, any idea what Veld wanted to talk to Vincent about?" Yuffie asked, her hands going behind her back as she stared down at the ground. But Brenna only shook her head.

"Sorry," She replied with a shrug. "You'll have to ask him that yourself. Anyway, let's go on a monster hunt."


	3. Chapter 3

The thing about monsters was that they're simple minded. Not stupid, just simple; they're instinctual, they think about shelter and food and not much else. Of course food is potentially anything that moves, so that's why they attack anything that catches their attention. They tend to only work in smaller groups of their own kind, if at all, not including the wolf like monsters that work in large packs. The farther north, the stranger the monsters get and that's when they start breaking rules; like the Snows that can talk, or the Tonberries in the crater that are far too intelligent to be normal. Yuffie blamed the Mako concentration in the northern continent for things like that; Mako always seemed to mess with things, which seemed to be the answer to every unexplainable problem.

The Hedgehog Pies (and Yuffie always wondered why they had such a ridiculous name) were not challenging by any standard; even when the odds where about one to twelve in the 'hog favor. Yuffie, having little other distraction, was trying not to stare; it wasn't exactly ninja training, but whatever the Turks taught, they taught it well. Brenna was a little slow thanks to the limp in her leg even with the brace, which is probably why her weapons where throwing knives (the idea had been to let Yuffie handle it on her own, but they both wanted to get back in time for lunch and Brenna had promised not to tell if she didn't). They were Kunai, really, though they were shaped with flight and aim in mind, rather than the digging tools that had inspired them; Yuffie could see her country's influence in them, but nothing more. The weapons themselves had to be magic, because no matter how many the lady-Turk threw, she never seemed to run out (Yuffie didn't really have a moment to look, two distractions was enough, but she was sure there weren't any silvery metal blades laying around on the ground either).

The massive shuriken flew from her finger tips, cleaving though a hedgehog monster before flipping backwards like a boomerang back to her hand. The ninja twisted and ducked low, a hedgehog rolled over her shoulder (and her shirt saved her from getting a spike in her shoulder), missing its mark and face planting into the concrete at her feet. Another twist and her weapon's point faced downward, the torque and coil of her body gave the massive metal edge power enough to sever the pink thing's head in two. Ugh! Those are her favorite boots!

Brenna's right hand flicked, white on sun-bright-silver, three times in a blink of an eye, the blades finding their targets and sticking, but where not strong enough to pierce deeper in the thick hide of the hedgehogs for a killing blow. She extended her left hand; a bracelet previously hidden in her sleeve gleamed in the sunlight. It looked something like a wizard bangle (without being tacky looking, or overly bulky, so maybe more like a Mystile, but those where rare and she doubted even the Turks could get ahold of those) with one blue-green and glowing orb of materia. Its color shifted to yellow for just a moment and with it the blades still standing in flesh like grotesques acupuncture needles crackles with lightning. The bolts of the level two Materia crackled over the monsters bodies, leaping between the conductive metal of the blades. The monsters spasm-ed for a moment, then slumped to the ground dead.

They were making good time; the pack of Hedgehog Pies thinned to less than a quarter of what it began is. It seemed like they'd get this done with no problem.

And with that thought, the universe conspired against her.

Just like with the Snows (the really smart ones that spoke), there were always exceptions to general rules. The fiasco started when a King Behemoth roared into the fight. The left over hogs bounced and jived, making faces and rude gestures (where had they learned to do that!) at the two of them and if that wasn't strange enough, the King Behemoth stood in front of the spikey pink monsters, snarling and dripping drool from its golden muzzle like it was there to protect them.

"Think we can take it?" Yuffie gulped, her face going a little pale (it was King Behemoth! Give her a break!).

"We'll find out." Neither Brenna's face nor words betrayed her emotions. Yuffie decided to call it Turk mode; Vincent always did the same thing when things got serious. "Don't let it focus on me; I can't out run it."

Right; New game.

…

Vald tapped his thumb and forefinger against his arm rest. With his head resting in his other hand, he chewed on the inside of his lip. It was his tell; he really didn't want to say whatever it was he had called Vincent in about in the first place. For whatever reason, Vald had to, and that was simply eating him up inside. It wasn't a question of if he would tell; it was a simple matter of when. Oh, and whether or not either of them had the patients to wait it out.

The paint was still drying in the room. The smell was making Vincent's head ache in time with his heartbeat. Vald's office was small, confining, _claustrophobic_ was the word for it, but Vincent was trying not to think about it; think it and he'd go mad. There was a clock somewhere in the office, but Vincent couldn't look to see where it was; if he broke eye contact with Vald they'd be at this for another ten minutes. Vincent couldn't handle another ten minutes.

"I need you for something specific." Vague, but it was a start. Vincent counted the tics from the hidden clock; the tics matched his heartbeat, the ache in his head. _Six... Seven... Eight… _ "We've recently acquired information on a group that… disagrees with our President Shinra." Vincent's gaze must of turned incredulous, though he hadn't been paying attention enough to realize he'd let it slip. "Shinra has had- what three attempts on his life now?" The chair creaked as Vald bent forward. That was another thing; everything was new here. It all had that factory smell, between that, the paint, wet cement from above and the dust of general construction all around; if he breathed to deep, he'd be sick. For a moment Vincent had stopped listening to his boss. "…Something about it. He asked me about you specifically. He has high hopes for you; thinks you'll be something great."

Vald chuckled to himself, Vincent wasn't sure if it was out of sarcasm or not. "I know you have the skill, the thing is, I'm not sure if you have the constitution for it." For a moment he'd lost track of the conversation, the question of morality forced him to rethink on the words his own thoughts had muffled out; he'd heard it, but hadn't registered the words. _The president is tired of it. He now has the money and power that needs protecting, he wants us to do something about it._

"What does he expect us to do." He might have asked the question, but he already knew the answer to it. Vincent at some point looked away, he hadn't realized he'd done so until he heard the rolling, clattering of a drawer opening. A thin manila folder made a soft sound as it landed on the desk between them. He took it flipping it open without hesitation, but his eyes lingered on that first word for a moment too long. No, he knew what it would say.

"This isn't the first time you-"

Vincent cut him off. "It's the first time I've been given a piece of paper with the commands written. Since when did we become soldiers?"

"You shouldn't think about it that way."

"Too bad."

Vald sighed resigned. "We've been drafted." His tone told Vincent that neither of them liked the idea, but Vald was far more willing to accept what this was. Vincent, however, was being hypocritical. For his protest, he knew when the time came; he'd do exactly as asked. There was something wrong with that fact, but Vincent couldn't seem to find the reason why.

Or when, exactly, he'd forgotten that reason.

"Are you thinking about her?"

"What?" The tension, at least the one Vald was giving off was gone, it was replaced by a man few rarely saw, a man Vincent had known for a long time.

"Yuffie." He answered with a shrug, crossing his hands on the desk, a half smile on his lips. "Watch out for that one. Your dad fell for the same trap; I'd rather not see it happen to you to."

"Oh, I don't know." Vincent replied, staring with well hidden longing out the door. He'd had about five minutes to forget his headache and now it was back. "Didn't seem all that bad to me. I got a good deal out of it anyway."

Vald laughed. "You would say that. Still, don't- … watch-" He frowned, not sure how to word his warning. Vincent could only shake his head.

"You're the one who put her in my house, and now you're trying to warn me against her?"

"I know. I needed her with someone who could give me an honest answer. It wasn't meant to be permanent."

"And if…" This would sound wrong no matter how he would try to word it. It was easier to pass the buck. "She doesn't want to go?"

The pause Vald let hang between them was calm and silent. He rapped his fingertips on the hard wood desk, staring down at its polished surface. "Vincent, if she's not who she says she is-"

"I already told you she isn't. I just have to figure out the truth now."

"Still. If she turns out to be a danger to Shinra then…"

Vincent took a deep breath, letting it out slow. There was nothing Yuffie did that had any hint of malice towards anyone. She was all flutters and smiles, like a humming bird; bright colors and endless energy. Her lies turn her into a puzzle that he wanted to try and solve, but at the same time she was enjoyable to be around, a change of pace he didn't realize he needed. There was no danger with Yuffie, but her lies made her suspicious and that's what kept Vald from relaxing. "You should really be more worried about me." Vincent mumbled in the end, not really meaning anything by the words.

Vald however, chuckled under his breath. "Oh, I am. No one else in the company knows about that, I think it's something better left unsaid."

"Protecting me? Didn't realize you cared."

"Just fulfilling a promise to my brother." The sarcastic smile on his face wasn't lost on Vincent.

The banter would have continued, but she door to Veld's office slid open with a hiss and a breathless worker leaned on the door frame, his chest heaving for air. "Sir- King Behemoth- outer sector 2-"

"Brenna and Yuffie are there." Veld muttered his gaze turning from the worker to Vincent, watching as his red eyes flickered. He was calculating; trying to figure out the girl's chances if left out there alone. Normally Vincent would know exactly how well they'd do, or how long they could last without help, but there was too much Vincent didn't know about Yuffie, she was a variable he couldn't factor for.

"Vincent?" It was taking too long. He didn't answer. "_Vincent?_"

…

Not well. That was how this fight was going.

Their first objective had been to eliminate the straggling hodgepodge of Hog-Pies that had survived until the King Behemoth arrived. Brenna made short work of them with her thunder materia while Yuffie kept the King's attention away from the Turk. The ninja rolled under a swing if a mighty paw. Six inch thick claws dug into asphalt tearing it up like a cat with paper. She set her feet and leaped, rolling up its arm, slashing with her shuriken across the behemoth's exposed shoulder. It didn't seem to even notice as it bucked smacking its thick neck into her small frame.

Yuffie hit the ground hard and was up and running in an instant.

The world slowed around her; it was her speeding up.

She was behind the King Behemoth, her shuriken held high. Its point dug deep in the flesh of the monster's thigh.

She was standing on its back, a red line of blood leading from golden flesh to the dull silver-grey of her shuriken. She was amazed, for just a moment, at the shapes the drops of liquid took as it passed before her eyes.

She was on the ground, standing a few feet away in front of dripping golden jaws. Her shuriken left her hand, cut through the air in an arc and smacked the beast in its snarling face. The _Greased Lightning_ faded as her shuriken spun back to her hand, the world slipping back into normal speed.

It was mad now. The behemoth charged, barreling through the short distance between it and Yuffie, its claws sending a cloud of concrete and dust into the air. She had about a millisecond to cross her arms protectively over her head (and wish she still carried around that giant arm-brace thing) before the monster rammed into her.

The cry of the monster went from the deep bellow of anger to a high pitched yelp of pain. It lost its footing and hit the floor with a thick crack.

"Yuffie!" It was Brenna, her materia still crackling with the lightning spell as she waved the ninja over. The distance between them wasn't long, but the Behemoth was getting up already and shaking off the effects of the lightning. "Do you know what a DMW is?"

"What?" Yuffie responded like Brenna was speaking a foreign language.

"Nevermind." Her response was muffled as she pulled her glove off with her teeth. Ivory white skin touched the slick grey and bloodstained metal of Yuffie's shuriken (and there was something sick about seeing such pure white skin stained with blood, she bit her lip to fight off the memories of the forgotten capital). Something, not blood, pulled away following the tip of Brenna's fingertips. It was a light, Yuffie thought. Gray, no yellow, no green… No- Brenna touched it to the sparkling silver of her throwing knives, they crackled with power snapping into a shape (magic they had to be magic) that looked like- no _was_- her shuriken. And still they drifted the colors of that power (grey green grey yellow grey) and if Yuffie stared long enough, until her eyes watered with need to blink, she could see their original shape of four throwing knives held together with magic color. Brenna frowned. "Close enough I guess." She mumbled.

Suddenly she was gone.

She was standing next to the King behemoth, her body arched for a swing at flank (is that what Yuffie looked like using it? So… cool…).

She was in front of it; the behemoth's head hadn't quite realized it should be tilted upwards as the thick metal sliced its chin.

Brenna's copy of _Greased Lightning_ faded as she was running along the monster back, dragging the point of one blade along its flesh. It was clear that she'd been expecting at least a little more time, Yuffie was expecting it too and she yelped out her name when she realized that wouldn't be the case. The bleeding King Behemoth bellowed in furry, bucking its back legs into the air sending the dainty girl flying. A flick of its long tail and Brenna was suddenly thrown to the earth and cracked (Yuffie gasped at the sound and flinched) with the ground. Her throwing knives lost their magic and clattered to the ground and vanished.

The monster turned to her prone form, drool dripping from its muzzle. Brenna didn't move.

Yuffie ran. Metal left her fingers to smack the behemoth on the head.

It didn't care. Brenna still hadn't move.

Bad, bad, bad!

The behemoth jerked.

It stopped and turned its head; as if it was amazed by the sudden hole in its shoulder (Yuffie was).

It took a step and jerked again. Another hole opened up, this one ran over its neck, right above the first hole, barely missing its spinal cord.

This time it turned in the direction the holes began. It opened its mouth wide and thundered so deeply Yuffie could feel the vibrations in her chest.

The roar was cut short.

It stared blankly, open mouthed into the distance. It didn't move.

Yuffie waited another second or so. The King Behemoth still didn't move.

Brenna was pulling herself back to her feet, and Yuffie dashed over to help. The Lady-Turk struggled to her feet, it didn't seem like anything was broken. "Your limit break just has to be speed based, doesn't it?" Brenna muttered with a sigh, she couldn't walk on her own now; putting weight on her leg made her whimper and pain. Yuffie helped her limp a safe distance away from the Behemoth incase the _Stop_ wore off sooner than it should.

Something rang, and Brenna dug into her pocket for a small flip phone, flicking it open with her thumb. "Hey Vincent, I thought you didn't like phones."

Yuffie burst out laughing.

…

"_Hey Vincent, I thought you didn't like phones." _He could hear Yuffie's laughter though the mic.

"I figured the situation was dire enough to merit a call or two." Vincent replied into the line, a trace of humor in his voice. His eyes where still trained on the behemoth though the scope and the time materia in the weapon pulsed with golden light. "Are you able to get out of there?"

"_Nope, decided on stupid and hurt my knee again. What about the behemoth? We can't just leave it here."_

"Vled has another team coming in to transport it out." He replied as he stood, hoisting the rifle over his shoulder. Of course, Brenna immediately disagreed with the idea, saying the thing was a menace and should be put down_._ He sighed and shook his head. "It's a call from the top, besides, neither of you can take much more in a fight."

Brenna giggled into the mic. _"Ah, so you did see our spectacular fiasco. Coming down for a visit?"_

"Be there in a bit."

…

Three more blue suited Turks showed up before Vincent did, and Brenna _swore_ that that was all of them. Nick was young, (but not as young as… as… what's-his-name) and plain looking, dark brown hair, lighter brown eyes. He sort of reminded Yuffie of Elena, not during the hunt for… for… _him_, but afterwards; still new, but comfortable with the job. New, but dependable? Yeah, something like that.

Yuffie didn't like Chase. His hair was silvery-white (she was a little bias to people with hair that color) and his gold eyes drifted over when Brenna mentioned his name, like he heard her from several hundred feet away. His eyes (she was pretty sure they had a Mako glow, minus that green color, she was totally not paranoid) lingered on her like an animal sizing up its prey before he turned away. Yuffie gave an involuntary shiver and Brenna could only offer an apologetic; "Yeah… he does that."

Kage was likeable (and Yuffie thought she had the Turk group dynamics figured out. Kage was in charge of one group, Vincent the other, as much as that big guy, Kraus, disliked it. And Veld was in charge of all of them) his hair was a wild mess of black spikes (like Cloud's only they lacked the one random gravity-defying stick) but his eyes where blue. He kind of reminded her of that one SOILDER she'd met way back when she was young. She couldn't remember his name, but Kage looked enough like him to trigger the memory and pain her with the thought that she never found out what happened to him. He shook her hand when he came over (and apologized for Chase almost immediately), and laughed when Brenna said she was a friend of Vincent's.

"Vincent? Friends?" He scoffed, good-naturedly. "Veld's right, the world is coming to an end."

"I guess you guys just count as target practice then." Yuffie turned at the sound of Vincent's voice, the sniper rifle (damn those things looked heavy) slung across his back with a flickering _Stop_ materia nestled in a slot. Yes, that was a joke, from Vincent. Yuffie was too surprised to laugh; it would have probably been drowned out by the baritone of Kage's chuckle anyway. Vincent dug into his pocket, pulling out the cell phone he'd used to call Brenna and tossed it to Kage. Of course Vincent didn't actually own one, that'd be too much to hope for in any time.

So… if Vincent was sort-of-Vincent, and Kraus was Berret, and Veld was Reeve, and Brenna was a flower girl (She didn't know the other two yet, so she couldn't relate them to anyone she knew) then Kage was… very Cloud like, maybe (and a little like that one guy too), it had only been about two seconds or so. And if Kage was Cloud then what did that make her? (W-what's his name? That kid? Forgettable? Annoying?) She rubbed her arm, suddenly feeling like the odd one out as the Turks talked (no, no, it would _also_ be too good to be true if Vincent actually participated in a conversation, never fear there _either_). Yuffie thought of something just then (thank Holy because it was starting to get to her), her eyes flickering around the group of Turks standing around her. "So, hey. What's a DMW?"

"Umm…" Kage mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. Vincent shrugged his shoulders in an 'I can't be bothered to explain' sort of way. Brenna sighed, rolling her eyes at the two.

"There are Limit Breaks, and there are DMWs," She began. "DMW stands for Dormant Mind Waves. It basically a copy of _someone else's _limit break that your subconscious can bring up by triggering memories of that person. The better you know that person, the stronger your DMW limit break will be."

"So wait, can you have a limit _and _a DMW?" Yuffie pondered aloud.

"No, only one or the other." Brenna pointed at Kage. "He's got limit breaks." Her hand drifted over to herself and then motioned to Vincent. "We have DMWs."

"Huh." Yuffie mumbled, then, smiling, turned to Brenna. "It's triggered by a memory right? What was it?"

Brenna laughed, covering her mouth with her re-gloved hand. "The only one I have of you; this afternoon sitting under the tree and giving Kraus a death glare for calling you Vincent's girlfriend."

That got everyone laughing.

…

Between Chase (who was especially good with magic) Vincent, Kage and Nick, the King Behemoth was kept in a near constant state of _Stopped-ness_ (it's a word! It's hyphenated!). A helicopter and a leather-harness-thing were brought in to airlift the monster out of the area.

"Why are they just taking it away and not just killing it?" Yuffie shouted over the roar of the chopper, her hands over her hair as the blade whipped the air violently about.

"One of Shinra's scientists has use of it." It was Nick, one of Kage's group that answered her with a shrug, the others were too far away to hear her over the noise. Yuffie frown at the thought, she knew a few Shinra scientists whom she wouldn't wish her worst enemy (he had silver hair, and her gaze flicked to Chase involuntarily) to suffer under. He didn't say more, he and the other two were quickly boarding the chopper before it took off. Kage gave a mock salute to the three of them left behind before disappearing inside the bird as it lifted off the ground.

After a minute or so the chopper was far enough away that they all could hear again without having to shout. "I suppose I'm required to lecture you both on reckless behavior and understanding your limits." Vincent muttered his voice low. Yuffie (and Brenna, she noticed out of the corner of her eye) cringed, preparing physically for the verbal lashing. "But, I really don't see the point." (They both breathed a sigh of relief.) "Let's go back. Brenna, can you walk?"

Her smile was endearing. "In the lightest sense of the word, yes."

"Hey Vincent?" Yuffie chirped like a happy little bird, he did little more to acknowledge her questing words with a look out the corner of her eye as he helped Brenna stand. "Any new words for me?"

Vincent smirked, the look on Yuffie's face was only surprise, honest. "Two, actually; trouble attractant."

…

"So… you're going to be gone a few days."

Construction for the day had ended, both in the building and on the plate as they walked back towards Vincent's place. Yuffie was munching on some fast-food sandwich thing, Vincent hadn't been hungry.

"Yes." Vincent replied there was a hollow-tight-empty-ness to his voice, one that Yuffie rarely heard; only when Vincent (her Vincent) was going to do something he'd prefer not to, but was too disciplined to just say no. "I'm not sure how long. We've never been asked to do this before."

He wouldn't make eye contact with her. Not because he was lying, Vincent could look someone straight in the eye and say the sky was _magenta_ and they would look to be sure it wasn't true (she never fell for that,_ honest_). It was more like he didn't want to acknowledge the truth of it; that he was somehow lying to himself.

They'd reached his front door, and Vincent paused before putting the key into the lock. "Vald wants a watch on you, just in case. He… wants Chase to do it."

A visible shiver ran down her spine, she hated being so bias towards a person she'd just met (or had not met really, seeing as he never spoke a word to her) , but she couldn't get that memory out of her head; the slow predatory gaze of those gold eyes and the way she could just imagine _someone else_ standing in Chase's place with that same look in his eyes.

"You won't notice him around. Ever." Vincent went on. There was an apology in his voice, he'd tried to convince Vald to pick anyone else, but the boss wouldn't hear it. He wanted Chase for that very reason; he'd go unnoticed. "You can do whatever you want, but if you try to leave Midgar without reason, he'll stop you."

Yuffie bit her lip, "Why are you warning me, wont that get you in trouble?"

The door swung open, and Vincent was half way up the stairs when he turned, looking down at her. "Yeah, probably… Not sure really. Don't tell Vald." And there it was; a flicker of a smile gone before he turned away again heading up the last few steps without another word.

Yuffie huffed a breath and crashed up the steps. Vincent knew exactly why he was telling her, he just didn't want to say.

…

"So you like it up here too?" He asked as she peeked her head over the edge of the roof. It was still strange not seeing him with that dark blue coat on (or jet black leather and a red cape, but that was something else entirely), with the sleeveless of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. Yuffie couldn't help but smile and she scrambled up on the brand new tiles.

"Mind if I join you?" She replied redundantly, plopping down next to him. "What are you doing up here?"

He shrugged, crossed his arms behind his head and laid back. "I like the stars."

"Do you know the story about the two lovers separated by a river of light?" Laying back herself as she spoke, she couldn't see if he was smiling at her knowledge or not. For some reason, she wanted to think he was.

"That's a bit of a sad one. If it rains, they have to wait another year." And to Yuffie's surprise, he went on. "…I like the one where Coyote knocks over the jar of stars and everyone gets mad at him for messing up the pattern."

"Why would you like that one?" She mumbled aloud,

Yuffie could hear the faintest of chuckles beside her. "The stars look better this way, don't you think?"

"I guess." The summery of the story confused her; she wondered what the whole story was about. "…. What's a coyote?"

"Always the important questions first, huh." Alright, he was defiantly making fun of her that time.

"Oh, just answer it!"

Vincent paused a moment. "… like a dog, only not. It's hard to imagine one if you've never seen it before."

"Where did you here that story?"

"That one's from Cosmos Canyon."

Yuffie sat up a little, "You've traveled a lot."

"When I was a kid, went where ever my dad was needed." He didn't meet her eye. His tone told her he didn't want to linger on the topic. It made her curious, wondering if he and his father had a falling out or something. But she knew when Vincent (well, not this Vincent, but it was close enough) didn't want to talk about something.

"Know any more stories?"

Yuffie didn't remember falling asleep, but when she woke up she was back inside and Vincent was gone.

_A/N:_ Well, I thought it was finally time I said something here and threes are lucky numbers. I like threes. So, Hello all you faceless eople on the other side of computer screen! It's good to figuratively meet you! I hope you've been enjoying this little dribble thing I've been concocting. I want to hit something off right off the bat; I know DMW is _digital _and not _dormant. _But I honestly didn't like that translation much (fine. I'll say it; I wasn't about to think up new Limit breaks for Vincent, okay?) and I'm sure there's only 1 hit in greased lightning, but that's no fun.

I'm surprised I got this far… My track record isn't all that good. Ha. But I'm trying! Really! Someone mentioned that this little thing was 'well thought out,' I laugh and have to disagree; I have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going with this, and I'm sorry this one took so long. Track record, remember? So, here is to another three chapters (and three more after that, and three more after that) and internet cookies to anyone who gets my obscure references. I don't think there was any yet though.


	4. Chapter 4

_Pisst. How many references to Assassin's Creed can you find?_

_(This question is rhetorical.)_

Vincent's eyes weren't always red. One fight too many as a kid had ended him up in hot water, well, a hot spring… well, a hot spring with enough Mako in it that strange things where known to spawn from its water. The memory of that fight, several years surrounding it, both before and after, and more than a few important details of his life where gone. Not to mention the time he spent in a Mako coma. Vincent couldn't remember what color his eyes originally where; his parents probably knew, but he'd never had it in him to ask.

Now his eyes were red, and if it was dark enough, he knew, they glowed lightly; like the fire in dying embers.

There was no moon that night, and that fact was a double edged sword. There was less of a chance of being spotted, but there was no chance of Kage not noticing the strangeness of his eyes. He hated having to explain it all; it was from nights like this why he preferred working alone.

The elder Turk had gone off to scout the area; making sure there wasn't a patrol around the building and attempt to find a likely way in. From what Vincent could tell, there was only one guard on the roof and the calls of the Kalm Fangs, but better safe than sorry. It had taken them a day and a half to reach this spot, and Vincent wasn't impressed. The so called base was little more than a well-built shack hidden by the jagged hill face and thick forest somewhere between Midgar and Kalm. Aside from being remote, there wasn't much to say about the location. The Fangs could be considered guard dogs, though a dog that was liable to eat the sheep was only so good. At least they were still howling. Howling was good; it was when they stopped howling that was worrisome.

Vincent was alone, waiting for Kage to return. Alone to listen for Fangs and think.

She had wanted to hear stories, so he told her a few. He would have to thank her later; she'd made the night bearable. If not for her, he'd had sunk himself with the weight of the task forced on him. Whether it was listening to him talk, the effort of the day, or a combination of both, Yuffie had fallen asleep next to him. It was an innocent thing, her; curled up on her side using his arm as a pillow. Vincent had carefully brought her back inside and tucked her in bed before leaving. He probably wouldn't have thought more of it if Veld hadn't said anything earlier that day. He hadn't been thinking about her at the time, but now it seemed he couldn't get her off his mind.

He closed his eyes and could see her asleep, her face soft with contentment.

Vincent whispered a curse to Veld under his breath, promising himself that there was nothing more to this. That he was only thinking about Yuffie because it was better than thinking about anything else.

"It's no good." Vincent nearly jumped out of his skin when Kage spoke beside him. The elder Turk gave him a disbelieving look. "What the hell is on your mind? I don't think anyone's ever snuck up on you before."

"Nothing." Vincent replied, a little too quickly. Kage's gaze went from doubtful to knowing; the look in those blue eyes said enough, but Kage was nothing if not tactful.

"Chase is an ass, but he at least listens to me; the only perk of being the older brother." Meaning that Yuffie was safe, Chase wouldn't harm her for any reason. A small bit of relief was gone that he hadn't realized was there. If Vincent didn't liking working with others, then Chase was a misanthropist. Kage gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Relax.

"I've checked around, they have the place locked tight; we're not going to get a lucky shot. They only have that one guy on the roof, but anytime anyone leaves they back the van and use the doors like shields. It doesn't matter who it is either; anyone goes in or out they use the van. Can't even tell how many are inside."

"Not even a guess?" He mumbled, checking his clips and gun habitually.

"More than two, less than a hundred?" Vincent stood silently, shaking his head. The forest was thick and silent, each step sounded like a gun shot in his ears. The guard stood on the corner of the building. He wasn't using a scope to see into the black, but neither was Vincent the difference was Vincent didn't need one. His eyes always burned when he used them in the dark, or maybe it was his head responding to information it was never meant to receive; the closest nerves being the ones in his eyes. The man on the roof was looking for something; but was looking the wrong way; the silencer muffed the sound to a breath of air.

The lifeless body fell to the ground with a muffled thump. Vincent tore his gaze away, rubbing the bridge of his nose and in between his eyes in pain. "We don't have time to worry about a shift change, let's go."

"Vince, are your eyes glowing?" Kage asked warily. There it was, he knew this was going to happen eventually.

"They do that." He replied shortly; explaining would take too long.

Swiftly they moved, Kage stood in front of the door, counted to three under his breath and kicked it open. One man stood in the small room; he turned and lasted long enough to look Kage in the eye before slumping to the floor dead. There were two other rooms, both empty and no sign of anyone else. Befuddled, Kage rubbed at the back of his neck, looking around weakly for some explanation. "I know-" Vincent silenced him with a raised hand, motioning to the body on the floor. Blood still seeped from the wound, pudding on the floor. The red liquid ran slow, but seemed to be following a grove in the floor, one that didn't fit with the grain of the floorboards.

Kneeling, Vincent ran his fingers along the edge where wall met floor. He found a grove in the baseboard, but the body was holding it down. Kage pulled the limp form to the side, unceremoniously dumping it to one side. He was trying hard not to stare at it; hell, even Vincent was trying hard to think of the body as an _it _and not _the guy my teammate just killed._ Unblocked, the door swung up revealing a pair of stairs that descended farther down into darkness. If it was a simple basement, or something larger, was impossible to tell. "So, you can see in the dark, right?" Kage asked, gilt in his voice.

Vincent took the first step down into the black.

...

The wind in her ears, Yuffie ran with the wind. She jumped from one rooftop to another, loosening shingles as her feet struck them. There was nothing better than this. She was free from the world, from society, rules and chains. From worries and fears; she moved so fast, even her thoughts where left far behind her. This was what she was; freedom. It was the word that described her best, in her opinion. She was like the wind in her ears, the sun in her eyes or even the sea glittering in the distance.

She jumped again, landing on a beam. Held up by a crane, it swung with a groan and she landed on the skeletal structure of a nearby building. She was running again, jumping across several set beams (and almost crashing into a worker). Throwing her hand out she dropped a level, a convenient pole waited for her outstretched hand. She swung, landed and used a vertical beam to drop another level.

In Wutai, her favorite routes had always been along the rooftops and tree branches. In a town of trained ninjas, one would think that looking up would be common place, but Wutai had been shackled by Shin-Ra, the metaphorical manacles around their necks made heads too heavy to lift. Shin-Ra would never chain her; she was too fast; they would never catch her. Thinking about what that company did to her wonderful home usually made her blood boil, but now it stirred up confusing feelings.

Down past the plate and down what would later be a support column holding the whole thing up. Yuffie landed hard on a rooftop of the to-be under city, she rolled twice to absorb the impact and was up and running without any loss of speed.

She worked for them now, didn't she? Did she sell her sovereignty for sanctuary? And even though she put her trust in them, they distrusted her; had eyes on her. He was around; she knew it, felt it. Maybe Vincent was doing a kindness by telling her that there would be someone following her, but maybe she would have been better off not knowing. He was there, somewhere, and yet she couldn't feel a gaze on her, didn't know where he might be. It sent a chill down her spine. So, she ran faster.

For a moment she forgot her troubles, they simply couldn't keep up with her speed. For a moment she closed her eyes and felt like she was flying. For a moment…

She recognized this place.

Sure, it wasn't run down and decrepit. The church was well maintained; the stain glass still in place, the roof still whole. But, all the same, she knew this place. Yuffie breathed deep, trying to steady her beating heart. Aerith's voice played in her head; mumbles of conversations she couldn't remember the words of (Why couldn't she remember? She _wanted_ to remember), but the sound of her voice was still there. Sweet pearls of laughter and that soft melody her words always sang. Yuffie would forget that too; memories aged and deteriorate with time. Yuffie was nothing if not stubborn, but it would be like trying to hold water in cupped hands; it would always find the smallest wholes to slip through.

Yuffie always pretended that nothing ever fazed her, but when that devil's sword plunged into her chest, her blood dripped down the cold steel, she screamed. She screamed and cried in panic, hysterical from the sight. She remembered shouting at Cloud to do something as he stood there in shock, cursing the monster who hurt such a perfect flower of a girl and bawling how it wasn't fair all in the same breath. She nearly threw herself at that man, that sick smile on his face, ready to do anything to avenge the girl, and to most likely die before she ever touched him. It had been Vincent, her Vincent, who calmed her. He'd pulled her into his arms and the protection of that soft red cape as she sobbed and pounded her fist against his chest.

She couldn't remember what happened after that; she'd woken up back in the seashell-ed houses of the Ancient City, but Vincent was still by her side. Only to tell her that the others were waiting for them down below, but Yuffie always liked to think he'd been looking after her while she slept to be sure she was okay.

Another deep breath and the panic was gone. Still she looked on the church with worry and tried to remind herself that this wasn't Aerith's church, not yet anyway. The girl wouldn't be born for another ten years or so. Her steps were sure as she crossed the circular path the rooftops gave her. A few minutes hunting found a small wooden window in the attic that she easily popped open and slipped into (hey, she was a ninja. Every once and a while she had to do ninja things). The support beams had a small platform in the center of it, surrounded by a flight of stairs that led all the way to the top. Yuffie couldn't understand what the point of that was. Unlike the stairs, the platform had no guardrails of any kind; a slight misstep would send a person plummeting two stories to a broken neck.

Even with the sun bright outside (and no plate to block it), the building was dim and gloomy. The stairs creaked as she walked down them, the sound of it bouncing off wood walls and stained glass, warping in pitch and tone. It was the (did she hear something?) kind of sound you heard (behind her?) in horror (was that a sound?) movies before the girl (just imagining things) turns around to find (nothing there, nothing there) the monster breathing down her (It got her!)-

Her foot slipped off a step. She yelped as she grappled for the railing. In the time she knew this church, that railing would have given way. Rotting wood would snap and splinter from her slight weight. But this place had yet to fall in disarray and the wood was solid and strong. Her eyes flickered around sheepishly, but there was no one around to see her little freak out. "I always do that to myself." She muttered aloud, only to use her words to chase off the fear in her head. Regaining her feet, she dusted off her socks and trotted back down the stairs like nothing had happened. "Some ninja, right?"

She skipped the last step, bounding on her toes on the ground floor, a grin on her face.

Teeth and drool grinned back at her.

Two things happen really fast. One was a thought, and that thought was that she was going to get eaten in a suburban area by a monster that put the King Behemoth from the day before to shame. The other was the monster slamming into her, her hands shot up to grab it by the neck. The reaction wouldn't save her from its claws, but at least her face wouldn't get chewed off. They rolled and tumbled, somehow she was holding the huge beast off. That is, until her head smacked against the floor. Yuffie didn't feel the pain, but her sight turned into a red smack of impact. Her arms went slack from the shock. The room swam. She didn't even bother flailing, the effort would just make her motion-sick, and anyway, she was dead, or would be in another moment.

… Wait…

Um…

There was a heavy weight between her breasts, like someone's arm pinning her to the ground. Colors slowly came into focus. She was staring at white and gold. Something smacked against her cheek, one-two-three, and she closed her eyes shrinking away from the contact. "You better wake up or they'll blame it on me." An unfamiliar voice growled above her.

"Galian..?" She mumbled, realizing she recognized (no, not the voice, Galian never spoke) those teeth and muzzle even as her eyes and brain started all over again with colors. White and gold. Annoyed, gold eyes were staring back at her, and white hair hanging above her. She blinked, wondering where she'd seen this man before.

Oh, yeah.

It was Chase, above her, pinning her down. Cough. His hair was long on the right side, like Vincent's, but the cut was sloppy and ragged, like he didn't care what it looked like as long as it covered part of his face. Laying there Yuffie could see why; his face was covered in the off-pink and wrinkle of scar tissue. The scar covered half his face, jumped to collar bone and disappeared under his shirt, reappeared beneath the sleeve and covered almost the entirety of his right arm. The edges where ragged, like they were made by the teeth of a monster; a monster intent on eating him and not caring to kill first. How she noted it all was beyond her, she was locked in those eyes. Gold blazing, iris slit like a cats (Oh, did that remind her of someone). There was anger in those eyes; white hot hatred for no other reason than hate itself. He could smell her fear, she saw it in the way his lip twitch periodically, like something burned his nose. "Let me go." She nearly pleaded.

And suddenly the weight of him was gone. She blinked and shuffled to her feet only to find him watching her carefully. He was like a monster in the shadows, his eyes burrowing into her from the meek gloom of the church. She took a step back, finding safety in the small puddle of light from a window somewhere above (probably the one she opened). His steps echoed in the empty room, the vaulted ceiling making his steps echo. "Little mouse…. How do you know of Galian?"

Yuffie clenched her hands defiantly, even if she did feel particularly mouse-ish hiding in her little circle of light. "Even mouse have teeth."

"How do you know Galian?" He asked again not amused, this time his voice was laced with a threatening rattle. He hadn't found her words funny and he would get his answer. She could see it in those burning golden eyes; he would pry it from her lips by force. He had no shame, no morals and no mercy. He was like a beast, like a demon.

Like Galian itself.

Yuffie and Cloud probably spent the most time in the company of the demons; they'd grown used to them, or at least understood their nature in way. They were demons. More than monsters, because of their intelligence, for they were, but they were less than human, because with that intelligence comes with the knowledge of mercy and kindness. The demons knew, but hardly cared. If Galian decided to tear a monster in half, he'd do just that. No thought and no regret. Despite that, they never harmed her or any of their friends. It could have been that they were far too diligent to be caught, and far easier prey in plenty. It could have been Vincent's hand, with what little control he had once the beasts had taken over, but Yuffie doubted both of them.

Watching Chase now, following him with her eyes as her circled back and forth. She knew it now. Chase wasn't the monster with angel wings that haunted her dreams some nights, but he also wasn't the man he claimed to be. "I'll tell you, if you'll tell me who you are."

He stopped short, taken aback by her sudden demand. Was he smirking at her? It was hard to tell when she was light blinded standing in the sun. She stepped out of her circle of comfort and into the dim dark. She still stunk of fear, but her fear was ebbing away.

"Bad question. I am Chase." He replied slowly there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but it faded as he went on. "But, I'll let you have the answer you really want. The one who walks in this skin was once called The Crewgian or Crewger Beast. Galian and Crewgian share the same source. Brother is a word for it, though a sloppy one at best." He was pacing, as if he couldn't hold still, as if his own skin bothered him. Sometimes when Vincent (her Vincent) was struggling with the beast there would be a mark change in behavior. Vincent (her Vincent) could stand as still as a statue for hours, but when the beast pricked at his skin he was prone to pacing, like Chase was now, or other things, little things, that clashed with his normal personality. Watching Chase, she couldn't help but wonder who was in control; who was the one behind those golden eyes and the way he'd told her… _The one who walks in this skin._

"I-I know someone… like you. Sort of." She replied lamely, unsure how to lie with this truth, unsure if he could smell her lie (it wasn't a lie, really, when she thought about it) like he smelled her fear, but it seemed to be enough for him.

"So they've tried it before…" He mumbled, turning away from her once more. Yuffie bit her lip. No. This wasn't right at all. She was trying to find the point where (her) Vincent acted like this, but there was none. It was almost like she was watching the beast ripple below the skin. Like there was no barrier between the demon and the outside world; like the man and the demon where one and the same.

"Where is Chase?" Her words made the man, the demon in a man's skin, in front of her turn in slight confusion. "You're Crewger. You are the one I met yesterday, so where is Chase?"

There was a long silence between them. It sounded like a bad play; the girl that had walked into the dark where the beast who played a man lurked. "I never understood this place." He muttered, walking away from her, into the main sanctuary, the echo of his voice warping in pitch by the building. "In Wutai they worship the summon Leviathan, but here, they have no such god. So why does this place exist?"

It seemed like such a strange question to her, but, she realized, he was playing by her rule. He'll tell her something if she'll tell him something. But, then, why this question? It was almost like he was curious, but had no one he trusted to ask such a question to.

Maybe that was it exactly.

"I don't know." Yuffie replied at length. "I had a friend I could have asked, but she's gone now, and I never thought about it myself." Aerith had prayed in a church like this, but she had prayed to the planet; the church, Yuffie was sure, was intended for some other spiritual being.

"Eyes should be opened." He replied off-handedly, the words held no bite; it was a simple comment, a suggestion for her. He rubbed at his arm, pulling at his own skin like it hurt more than itched. "Chase is… gone. He didn't survive."

"Then how are you still here?" Yuffie questioned before she could stop herself, she had given him the long answer before for this very reason, but now she owed him another answer herself, she could just kick herself right now.

"Why do you care?"

Yuffie frowned at that. Galian was one thing; she learned to trust that beast though shared dangers and wounds. This beast, however, was no better than the monsters that spawned out in fields. Or, was that too harsh? She'd learn something from Galian; that even though it was a demon, that didn't make it a monster. It had thought and reason, and so did the beast standing with her now. "You're not a monster and I could call Galian a friend."

"Interesting…" He paced and pulled at the skin on one arm, then on his neck. The strength in his hands left red marks on his pale skin. "Mou- Yuffie… do you know what happens when a human dies?"

She shifted from one foot to the other as he turned that burning gaze back to her. "Our souls return to the planet." He nodded.

"A human's soul is weak; it cannot make the journey back on its own. The body's last act in life is to use its remaining energy to propel the soul to the planet. Without that push the soul would linger on this plane like a ghost, alone for all eternity." His eyes were locked on her's and she was forced to look away.

"Whether it was my soul being bound to him or the scientists' mad attempts to save him. This body did not realize it was dying, even when its original soul had detached…" He wondered over to the stain glass murals on the walls. The light that filtered through glittered on his pure white hair, dying it vibrant colors in patches.

"Did you help him?" She followed behind him, holding out her hands so the colored light twinkled on her hands.

There was a half laugh in his voice and a faint, indescribable smile on his face. She had to look up to see him; she was shorter than him by a head at least. "Mother Planet would have been angry with me if I didn't. She adores all her children."

A freebie? Maybe he'll give her another. "What about you?"

The beast shrugged his shoulders. "I have a better chance than he did."

"No I mean, aren't you one of her children too?" She followed him as he wandered back into the gloom. All the while he was still rubbing, still pulling, still pacing.

"We are the guides to her protectors, she cares for us, but not like she cares for her children, for you." She touched his arm, her fingers brushing the scar covered skin on his arm. He hissed, jerking back like her fingers where daggers. He bared his teeth at her, then almost like he realized it wasn't quite as threatening as a human, turned away with a huff.

"Does it hurt?" Yuffie asked softly, as if softening her voice would calm him down.

"What?" He growled, snapping his teeth. Yuffie flinched back, realized her mistake too late. He was angry with her now for treating him like an animal. Burning cat like eyes told her his thoughts; if she was going to treat him like a beast he'd act like it.

"Being stuck here. Does it hurt?" Don't look him in the eye, she told herself, even if he wasn't an animal, even Galian responded better when it wasn't stared at. Her concern shocked him, enough that he stopped gnashing his teeth at her and calm enough to give her a critical eye.

"Little mouse, it burns like fire." His voice was hardly above a whisper. He left her side, sauntered his way to the giant double doors of the cathedral. Yuffie squinted her eyes as the sun spilt into the room. The walls threw his voice back at her loud enough to hear. "But, that's enough questions. You'll do something for me; Veld would like to speak to you about yesterday. Take your time reaching him and… don't mention anything we've spoken of to Kage."

The doors swung shut with a bang.

...

_This one is shorter and took longer, mostly because I'm having trouble with the next part which should technically be part of this chapter. It was either cut it out and give you what I had, or make you all wait even longer._

_Hope you all like my OC demon. I have a theory that there is one for each weapon (and that Hellmasker and Death Gigas are synthetic and not worth mentioning, plus I never liked them much) so that means there are four other demons out there somewhere._


	5. Chapter 5

He wasn't all that bothered by it. It was that fact that bothered him the most. Vincent had stopped keeping track of the times, more afraid that if he tried, and lost count somewhere along the line… No, he kept the exact number from his conscious mind, knowing emphatically what it was and denying it at the same time. The eyes would always haunt him in the night, every one of them searing him with hateful, scared or expressionless gazes.

His first hit had been the worst. Veld had to hold his hand like a child the entire time, and then sat back and watched as Vincent struggled to pull the trigger. The blood had splattered up his arm, but it was nothing like in the movies where it gushed and covered everything. Instead, the wound had a gentle flow, pulsing with the slowing of her pulse as her heart slowly realized how futile it was to keep pumping. He tried not to stare at the damage to her pretty face, the matter and meat that had been displaced from the side of her head, but the more he tried the more his eyes focused in it. It was how he got the image of her eyes burned into his head, clear blue and panic sickened even after death. She had done something to deserve it, but what it was had never been told to Vincent, or had been lost in that moment.

Veld had to pull him away, maybe drag him to his feet, it was too hard to recall properly. Veld was talking, saying something, orders maybe, but his ears where ringing with that final shots and the words didn't match with the motion of his lips. "Don't tell my brother." Vincent thought he said, "He doesn't know and I don't have the heart to tell him what I got his son into." Vincent's father and Veld were brothers; twins in fact. Veld had always been on the straight and narrow path, while his dad had always done as he pleased. It was probably why he'd ended up with Vincent at the age of 16, not that his father had ever complained. Grimoire never treated Vincent like a nuisance and it was because of his father that he had traveled nearly all the world in a short time. He could only nod numbly in reply.

No, neither of them could tell him the truth, they didn't have the heart.

His key clicked quietly in the locked door.

Yuffie was fast asleep in his room. It was late, Vincent collapsed onto his couch, staring up at the ceiling. He had a routine; he and Kage had begun it when he had joined the Turks. After a hit like this the two of them would hit a bar or two, maybe go home with a girl; and forget it all. This time however, he'd waved Kage off, the older Turk looking something like a kicked puppy, and went home. He couldn't do it, not with thoughts of her swimming in his head. He cursed Veld for the hundredth time under his breath, blaming him for shoving Yuffie into his mind like this. He'd only known the girl for a few days, it shouldn't be like this.

Lying here, however, was worse. He was contemplating calling Kage up, but that required movement. It was easier to shut his eyes.

* * *

><p>His ears were ringing and the room blurred around him as he stumbled through the halls, grey halls all around; walls far too close. He was trying to find the way out; every path was blocked.<p>

He could hear breathing; loud like it was right next to his ear.

He was trying to find it.

At the point of panic the walls swirled around him and he was in a room. Empty. Red. It was red.

She was on the floor.

The whole floor had turned red.

He leaned over her, searching for the breathing he could still hear.

Grey eyes stared up at him; glared at him.

"Vincent.?" She asked, but her lips didn't move.

He realized it was his own breath he was hearing…

* * *

><p>"Vincent?" Yuffie asked again, a little louder. Apparently Vincent had always been a really deep sleeper. He flinched awake like she'd scared him; she probably did. "You were muttering in your sleep, you okay?"<p>

The Turk sat up from the couch he slept on, rubbing his face with both hands. "Yeah." He replied his voice muffled as he stared almost blankly ahead. Yuffie must have woken up at some point; he didn't remember grabbing the sheet that tangled around him out of the closet. "Did I wake you?"

Not counting the days he'd been away, this was his third, maybe fourth day with Yuffie. She had her quarks, and sometimes he'd have called her out right annoying. She liked to push buttons and test limits, two or three times. Vincent had to admit, however, that her energy was infectious and that small fact had made it easier for him, just a little. It wasn't something he'd exactly share with her; she'd take it and run without a thought.

"Nope, it's almost 7, I'm always up about this time." He lay back on the cough, covering his eyes with an arm. Unlike her, he was absolutely not an early riser and despite the shock he woke up with, Vincent was already falling back asleep. "Veld called." He didn't answer and Yuffie rolled her eyes, she picked up a discarded throw pillow. It was funny, that these where called throw pillows, considering what she was about to do with it. With a flick of her wrist, it hit Vincent in the chest and he jumped up with a half formed curse.

He was glaring at her, but she could only grin. "_Veld called_. Says you need to be in A-sap." She said again, this time pointedly. "I didn't know you owned a phone." He rolled his eyes at that, probably because he hated phones, for whatever reason.

She watched as he haphazardly folded the sheet she'd thrown over him in the night moving almost mechanically as he went about his morning routine. She frowned as she watched, he was having one of his worst days and it came very pointedly to her mind that this was (her) Vincent almost every day. He would perk up, he hoped, even (her) Vincent had _good_ days, few and far between as they were. Maybe if she just let him be for a bit he'd pull back together on his own.

She hoped anyway.

* * *

><p>It was the strangest sight to see.<p>

The feral monster, the demon that walked in human skin, Chase himself lay under Shinra's nice little tree, a small silver music player in one hand and earbuds in his ears; placated like she'd not seen. "Am I seeing things?" She balked trying to keep it quiet, wondering if the man in question could hear her over the music. Maybe he couldn't, maybe he just didn't care to comment.

"Probably had to get prodded by the scientists, they can't do anything to him unless he's doped." Vincent at least was doing a bit better, maybe it was the sight of the monster pacified. Maybe it was her quiet jabbering to keep his mind of the nightmares, Yuffie at least liked to think it was the latter.

"Why… would they need to?" She asked, wondering if anyone besides her knew the truth of the man.

"Not sure. Something they did to him to save his life, he and Kage don't talk about it." So he didn't know, that means he wouldn't have known what happened, would happen, later. Though by that time, her time (she was confused again, but she gave up trying to get it straight), he'd probably made the connection.

"So… he's high." She asked a disbelieving look on her face as she pointed at the uninterested Turk.

"Yeah." Vincent sighed, rubbing the back of head in that way he did when he wasn't sure what else to do but agree. "He's high."

Yuffie was utterly gleeful. A wicked smile played on her face, if only she could decide what to do!

His reaction to their presence was slow, and when he finally inclined his golden eyes towards them, Yuffie could see that they were bloodshot, oh this was so good, and he clicked his music off, waiting for them to ask their questions. It was finally Vincent who thought of what to say. "Where's Kage?"

"Home…" The demon… purred? No that was too cutesy, although probably very accurate. Yuffie knew from her encounter with him how he hated being touched, how his skin burned him just by being skin. He probably didn't feel any of that now, that actually explained why the demon would hang around this place; they'd gotten him addicted to painkillers.

Yuffie tried not to snort a laugh.

But no, not purred. He kind of rolled it in the back of his throat, almost like he was about to fall asleep at any moment. "Sick." He finished, over accenting the click of the K as he did so. Oh, he was so gone, and all the will power Yuffie possessed not to fall to the floor laughing.

"Would you like me to take you back, Chase?" He was friends with the other Turk, Chase's supposed older brother, so it made sense that Vincent would watch out for him when possible. When Chase would actually accept help, anyway, and not bite back like a wounded animal.

"Cant." The demon replied, rolling his head to the side with a sigh. "Still needed." The demon's words where practically slurred as he spoke. "After. If… your still here." Vincent nodded and pulled her along as the demon clicked his music back on.

"Don't even think about it," Vincent warned softly. "He still remembers everything when he's like that and he'll get you back tenfold."

Aww, there went all Yuffie's devious planning.

* * *

><p>It occurred to Yuffie that she was staring at the height of her own civilization. Midgar was new and shiny; like a toy right out of the box. The scratches would come, the delicate pieces broken off in time, the paint chipped and faded; that was the Midgar, the world, which she knew. She could remember the rubble, the pieces of technology that no one seemed to understand anymore; the dingy, polluted, dirty and rusted metal that had become Midgar.<p>

It was like, in a few years' time, the world had ended.

The word 'post-apocalyptic' always seemed to bring thoughts of wasteland; of lifelessness and emptiness. It brings thoughts of a hand full of survivors and of struggle and maybe a few zombies. It doesn't bring to mind that whole cities live on, that the world hardly even realized its survived Armageddon. But, honestly, seeing the world as it once was, Yuffie couldn't deny that things have gone backwards in her own time.

Sure, there had been a war, and sure, people fought and died, but she would have never thought the world had been set back- by years!- after that war. It was… normal for her; you never question what you see every day. The rubble was just rubble, it was always there and she never thought once of why it was there or where it came from or why no one seemed to know how to use it.

Eyes should be open, the demon in human skin had said (when he wasn't high as a kite, he had good advice). Well, her eyes where plenty open now.

* * *

><p>The days rolled into weeks that in turn rolled into months. Yuffie kept working under the table for Veld, saving Midgar one kitten in a tree at a time. She stayed at Vincent's for no better reason then he hadn't asked her to leave, and things almost felt normal. She still was absolutely baffled (heh, that was a funny word, <em>baffled<em>) on how to return home, but dwelling on it did little for her. She was too spunky for dwelling.

At some pint she realized something about Vincent that nobody else seemed to, or did and preferred to not mention it out of politeness. Happy really wasn't what described his overall mood. He didn't possess boundless energy, or the sunny outlook on life that she had. He was content, or maybe calm, most of the time. This was Vincent on a good day and most of his days _were_ good.

Every once in a while however, almost inexplicably because sometimes Veld game him a rough assignment and she was sure that didn't help at all, he'd taper off. He'd sink so low that getting up in the morning seem too painful even to her eyes. Only the methodicalness demanded of him by the jobs Veld sent his way would keep him moving and eventually he'd manage to pull himself up and out of a sudden hole he'd find himself in. Veld she realized, did his best to keep him busy during these times, as busy was probably the only thing that kept him from falling down completely. It almost came in a cycle and on one of his better days she confronted him about it.

"You're depressed." She stated simply pulling his gaze away from the TV( as Vincent had a TV, she was shocked). It was a strange thing, that TV; there was a projector under the wooded coffee table pointed at the blank wall in front of the sofa. The picture quality was like a screened TV, even in broad daylight. How did they not still have this kind of stuff? But, she was getting distracted.

His brow had nit in confusion, at her statement. It was quite out of the blue, but that was how Yuffie rolled and it had the added benefit of getting unfiltered reactions out of him. "No, I'm not."

"I mean, you have it." She corrected, leaning on the counter even though it made it that much harder for her to see him, he didn't like it when she sat on the counters. "Depression."

"Oh." He sighed reaching for the remote to mute the sound so they wouldn't have to talk over it. "I guess it's kind of hard not to notice."

"So you know." Her matter-of-fact-ness was lost with the uncharacteristically serious discussion she'd volunteered for. Honestly, this explained almost everything, she felt so bad for him now and in the future where she'd first known him. She doubted whatever icky things Hojo did to him helped at all with these problems, knowing the sick Professor he probably made them worse, on purpose. "They have medicines for it, don't they?"

"They make me feel worse." He muttered making a face. He'd obviously tried them once, probably at someone's badgering, Vincent would never do such a thing on his own. "Besides, it's never gotten so bad that I..." He trailed off, he didn't like talking about it, he rarely liked talking about anything especially himself, but just as Yuffie volunteered for a serious conversation he had to comply too.

"And if they did?" Yuffie felt the same way, not about talking, she loved talking, but only if it wasn't serious. If it was mindless babble she could do it all day, Vincent didn't seem to mind as long as she didn't expect him to talk back. They got along _so_ well.

"Veld knows. He comes and checks on me when he sees it. And..." He paused, a subtle shrug to his shoulders. "Now I've got you around."

Oh, under any other circumstance she'd have beamed, how dare he steal such an amazing moment with a serious conversation? She could kick him, she had half a mind to go over and do just that. She didn't, but she wanted to. "And if it ever got_ that_ bad?"

"Veld's already got my promise to try the medicine again, guess you do too." Vincent replied with a sigh.

Yuffie's brow knitted. She never thought Vincent could be more of a pain in the rear then he'd already been when she'd known him (she was so tired of confusing herself with timelines; if it happened to her, it was in the past, that was it!). "You worry me. You know this, right?"

He chuckled lightly at this and she resisted another urge to walk over and kick him. He was stealing all the good moments again! "I do now."

* * *

><p>Grim's only picture (That I've ever found) is such a bad one, it's hard to tell. But to me, He and Veld have the same hair style thing going on, so why not brothers?<p>

_I'm terribly sorry this took soooo very long. I'm also terribly sorry that it's so much shorter than my other chapters have been. On top of going back to school, I was having such a hard time trying to figure out how to move the story along, and I actually used a bit of what I was saving for later, just so I can get this back up and running. I hope none of you are disappointed, but I promise the next chapter will NOT take me another year, I am determined in this!_


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